When the ground shakes

This lesson asks you to analyse the ways in which geological processes affect society and the environment. The museum holds medieval reports of earthquakes and of their effects on towns, buildings and people; why the ground moves, and other geological processes, are for your class. ¹

The expectations ask for effects on society and on the environment. Sort what you read into effects on people, on buildings and on the land or sea, and note which came first and which came later.

The record of the year 425 AH says Ramla was shaken and about half of it was destroyed. Villages sank into the ground, part of the wall of Jerusalem fell, and the minaret of the mosque of Ascalon collapsed ². After the devastating earthquake of 1033, the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir had al-Aqsa rebuilt between 1034 and 1036 ³. The new mosque was smaller than its predecessor, with seven aisles instead of fifteen ³.

The record lists a wall, a minaret and whole villages, and then a rebuilt mosque. Which of these losses would a town find hardest to replace, and why?

• Earthquake at Ramla and the sea's recession, 425: what else the record says happened in that year, including the sea.
• The Fatimid rebuilding of al-Aqsa: how the mosque changed when it was rebuilt.

Read about the year 425 AH and the rebuilding of al-Aqsa. Make a timeline with the damage on one side and the response on the other.