← Back to the front page

Unusual Historic Crises and Calamities

Khalid Elhassan April 16, 2020 34 min

5. Tossing People and Trees in the Air Like Water Drops Shaken Off a Wet Dog

Epicenter of the 115 Antioch Earthquake. Listverse

As described by the Roman historian Cassius Dio, the Antioch Earthquake was preceded by a loud and bellowing roar. Then the ground started to violently vibrate and shake, tossing people and entire trees up into the air as if they were water drops shaken off a wet dog’s fur.

Entire buildings were lifted off the ground, then violently slammed back to earth. Many were killed or injured by falling debris, and many more by buildings collapsing atop and burying them. The aftershocks, which continued for days, killed and injured many of those who had survived the first day’s tremors.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.