Introduction

Hydrologic responses to earthquakes such as water level oscillations in monitoring wells and flow changes in streams have been known for decades. However, damage to aquifers and changes in groundwater supplies represents an earthquake hazard that has received relatively little attention from the scientific community. Yet, its impact is high as it leaves well infrastructure without water, results in water pollution, and creates a threat to public health in the aftermath of earthquakes. Although there are relatively few documented cases of the effects of seismic activity on aquifers and groundwater in both the ancient written record and in archaeological studies dealing with the consequences of earthquakes, the use of modern seismic examples and technology could allow for new interpretations of ancient disasters. This chapter reviews known documented modern cases of groundwater supply damages and attempts to analyze similar ancient occurrences in Crete during the Bronze Age.

In 507 A. D. Joshua the Stylite, who composed in the Syraic language, recorded the conditions of the aftermath of the earthquake of 498-499 A. D.:

In the month of Ilul (September) there was a violent earthquake, and a great sound was heard from heaven over the land, so that the earth trembled from its foundations at the sound.... and, as some said, a marvelous sign was seen in the river Euphrates and at the hotspring of AbarniB, in that the water which flowed from their fountains was dried up this day. It does not appear to me that this is false, because, whenever the earth is rent by earthquakes, it happens that the running waters in those places that are cleft are restrained from flowing, and are at times even turned into another direction (Wright, 1882).

This excerpt refers to the earthquake that destroyed the Nikopolis settlement located in Commagene near Euphratensis and is amongst the earliest documented evidences in the Near East for the effect on water supply by earthquakes.

Y. Gorokhovich (B)

Department of Environmental, Geographical and Geological Sciences, Lehman College, Cuny,

Bronx, NY, 10468, USA

E-mail: Yuri. gorokhovich@lehman. cuny. edu

L. W. Mays (ed.), Ancient Water Technologies, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8632-7_10, © Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2010

The text reports typical earthquake damage patterns, which today are analyzed in the discipline of seismology. Seismology is not only concerned with the study of earthquakes, but also the fluctuations of water level in wells and streams in relation to stresses and strains caused by seismic waves propagating through the rock media, including aquifers (Brodsky et al., 2003; Manga et al., 2003; Matsumoto et al., 2003; Quilty et al., 1995; Roeloffs et al., 1995; Rojstaczer and Wolf, 1994; Rojstaczer and Wolf, 1992). Earthquakes have a variety of hydrological effects including impacts on aquifers, changes in the water table, and alterations in groundwater supply. Seismic events can damage aquifers feeding domestic wells and can interrupt or completely stop their water supply. This affects the population in the post-disaster period when the absence of adequate water supply or the use of well water that was contaminated impacts public health. Earthquake hazards to well infrastructure are common in areas with both low and high levels of seismic risk.

The response to the loss of water supply today in developed and developing countries is similar: additional water resources are brought to affected population by means of transportation until the water supply is repaired. This happened during such events as the Pymatuning earthquake that hit Pennsylvania in 1998 and also the last earthquake in Peru when three coastal cities Ica, Pisco, and Chincha were hit by an earthquake in August 2007. Water for these Peruvian cities had been supplied by tankers (OCHA, 2007).

Though two different countries, the help and remediation was the same: drinking water was supplied from outside sources in various containers and the water supply system was subsequently fixed using local and outside help. This is characteristic for the modern world with fast information flow and technical equipment (drilling machines, motorized transport, generators, etc.) However, besides being examples of human vigor and technological advancement, modern cases of water supply loss due to earthquakes are also a tool that can be used to study the past.

Analysis of current hydrologic disasters caused by earthquakes provides insight into ancient times when the ability to prepare for and respond to natural disasters was limited at best. In the Bronze Age problems with water, such as loss of water sources or change in groundwater supplies, were most probably not interpreted as solely a matter of technical solution, but rather as an omen or a sign from the gods that would have had religious and political repercussions (Driessen, 2001). In antiquity, and more specifically in the Mediterranean World of the Bronze Age, there were three significant types of water sources: springs, wells, and rivers (Zertal, 1988).

Because of the hot and semiarid Mediterranean climate with significant rain falling only in the winter months, between November and February (Crouch, 1993), fluctuations or loss of water or flow output could have had devastating consequences on the cultures that relied on these sources of water. The notion of transporting vital resources such as water and grain in ancient times seems to be somewhat unfeasible; Marc Van de Mieroop explains that even in the late Roman Empire, when an excellent road system covered much of Anatolia, a city could suffer a terrible famine when grain was readily available less than 100 kilometers away (2007). Yet, archaeologists often examine only the structural damage and abandonment of ancient buildings and sites due to earthquakes (Stiros, 1996) and overlook the effects on water resources, which can have far reaching ramifications.

This study attempts to show how modern perspective can provide possible explanations of ancient events. It draws on examples of natural disasters from the 20th century associated with the loss of water due to earthquakes and attempts to superimpose geological interpretation with historical and archaeological evidence from similar incidents of the past. Specifically, we target the ancient Minoans of Crete to illustrate yet another facet that might have prompted both a shift in their cult practices and the decline of the Minoan culture.