(1509) Massive earthquake hits ConstantinopleThe North Anatolian Fault releases 7.2 magnitudes of energy under the Sea of Marmara close to the seat of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, in what will one day be Turkey. The quake will earn its epithet, ‘The Lesser Judgment Day,’ with its immediate destructiveness and 45 days of seemingly endless aftershocks.The 1509 Constantinople earthquake, referred to as “The Lesser Judgment Day” by contemporaries, occurred in the Sea of Marmara on 10 September 1509 at about 10pm. The earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.2 ± 0.3 on the surface wave magnitude scale. A tsunami and forty-five days of aftershocks followed the earthquake. Over a thousand houses and 109 mosques were destroyed, and an estimated 10,000 people died.
Date: Sep 10, 1509 Great Istanbul Earthquake (Little Judgment Day), 1509