1508 Greece: Crete: Iraklion (Candia),Megalokastron Earthquake

Three hundred deaths are recorded for the earthquake that struck Crete on 29 May 1508, when the island's capital was the Venetian city of Candia, the modern Iraklion. Shaking was rated at Mercalli intensity X, the level at which most masonry buildings are destroyed, though no magnitude or focal depth was reconstructed. The catalogue places the event at 35.2 N, 25.1 E. Crete lies directly above the Hellenic subduction zone, where the African plate descends beneath the Aegean, making it the most seismically exposed island in the Mediterranean. Venetian administrative correspondence, kept because Candia was a fortified colonial capital, is the reason a casualty figure survives at all for an event of this date.

1508 Greece: Crete: Iraklion (Candia),Megalokastron: magnitude unrecorded at depth unrecorded. Caused 300 deaths. In the seismically active Eastern Mediterranean region.