A catastrophic tsunami occurred sometimes between 7,910 and 7,290 BCE with an extreme 16 m (52.5 feet) wave height and 1.5-3.5 km (0.93-2.2 mile) run-up on the Carmel coast of Israel, according to new research published in the journal
PLoS ONE.
The archaeological site of Tel Dor, Israel. Image credit: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Tsunami events in antiquity had a profound influence on coastal societies,” said lead author Dr. Gilad Shtienberg from the Department of Anthropology in the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues.
“6,000 years of historical records and geological data show that tsunamis are a common phenomenon affecting the eastern Mediterranean coastline, occurring at a rate of around 8 events per century in the Aegean region over the past 2,000 years and approximately 10 per century over the past 3,000 years in the Levant basin.”