Lake Voulkaria

Lake Voulkaria is a fresh water lake. Researchers found evidence of multiple tsunami impacts on this lake. The oldest tsunami (generation I) did probably not affect the lake itself but connected the former Lake of Cheladivaron (=Bay of Aghios Nikolaos) to the open Ionian Sea; this event tookplace in the 6 th millennium BC or shortly afterwards. The subsequent tsunami generation II is dated to around 1000 BC; the following generation III hit the lake most probably during Classical-Hellenistic to maximum Roman times. Thick deposits of tsunami generation IV from the 4th century AD were encountered all around the lake, probably representing traces of the well-known 365 AD earthquake and tsunami catastrophe that destroyed large parts of the eastern coastal Mediterranean.

The tsunami risk in the eastern Mediterranean to one of the largest all over the world with statistical re-occurrence rates of up to 8-11 years for extreme events regardless of their intensity. This is due to major faults and subduction zones as well as steep bathymetrical conditions highly apt to produce submarine mass movements.

Dromos