Monday, March 27, 2023

Fault lines near Ancient Troy

Due to tragic earthquakes in Turkey, I've encountered images of fault lines in the area of Troy, some of which appear below. It is widely believed that Troy VIh was destroyed by an earthquake.  

What is known as the North Anatolian Fault passes quite close to Troy.  





















One branch of the fault passes through the Sea of Marmara, emerging just north of the Gallipoli Peninsula, in the Gulf of Saros.  Another passes along the south shore of the Sea of Marmara, then continues inland through the Troad, to the south of Troy.  


















Troy is located where the 40th Parallel makes landfall on the Turkish coast, which is marked on the maps above and below. 

















I don't know much about plate tectonics, but Anatolia is its own plate, the Anatolian plate.  It is squeezed between the African, Arabian and Eurasian plates.  

The East Anatolian Fault runs where the Anatolian and Arabian plates meet. 
















The devastating earthquakes in February of this year were along the East Anatolian fault.  

Given the sheer number of fault lines passing in or near the Troad, it would not be surprising to find that Troy suffered damage from earthquakes more than once between 3000 and 1200 bce.  




Below: the 40th Parallel crosses the beach at Troy. 















UPDATE:
I've just found a paper about Earthquakes at Troy.  It discusses a fault that runs down the valley of the Dumreck, across the plain of Troy, through Lisgar marsh and into the Aegean sea.  It could be responsible for part of the great Kesik cut.  




The authors tell us that "The fault enters the alluviums of Karamenderes Stream starting from the area where ancient Troy settlement is located, but its continuation from here towards the west is not clear. However, when its direction is followed, it can be seen that the fault trace again becomes evident between Ballıburun and Kesiktepe" in section 4.2 of their paper. The fault goes right under the middle of the ancient city in the plain.  

From the concluding section of the paper:  

"In this study, it was understood that the earthquakes which destroyed Troy III and Troy VI layers had not developed on the Troy fault system. Although their source is not clearly known, these earthquakes might have originated from the active faults in Biga Peninsula or from Gaziköy-Saroz fault which represents the north branch of NAFS."  

Below is their representation of faults in the Biga Penninsula and Soros Bay that could be responsible for earthquake destruction in ancient Troy. 
























Another article about earthquakes at Troy: https://www.baslibrary.org/archaeology-odyssey/4/5/12





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