Impacts of the 2020 Samos earthquake on the modeling of ancient seismic events

Authors: STATHIS STIROS

Abstract: The 2020 Samos, M7.0 earthquake was characterized by an unusual bi-modal-type distribution of damage: limited damage in the nearfield (especially northern Samos coast) and serious localized damage in multi-story buildings in the far field (İzmir area). This pattern is not consistent with the typical distribution of isoseismal lines, and it seems not to represent an isolated effect; the 2014 Samothraki- Gökçeada M6.9 earthquake, for example, may in fact represent a parallel, though at smaller scale. For this reason, the damage pattern of the Samos earthquake may characterize historical earthquakes in the wider region, and perhaps explain, among others, some apparently large meizoseismal areas of historical earthquakes. Furthermore, the fact that damage in a part of the İzmir area occurred under moderate background acceleration has important implications for various ancient, long-period structures, especially monumental Greek and Roman multi-block columns and temples. These structures are highly resistant to seismic loads and difficult to fail under common earthquakes. However, evidence from the İzmir area indicates that, under certain conditions, common background accelerations can be highly amplified and leave their traces in such structures, for example in the Heraion temple at Samos.

Keywords: Earthquake, historical seismology, ancient temple, earthquake resistant structure, seismic intensity, acceleration amplification

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