LEBANON: What next?

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As if the recurrent bloodshed and political setbacks were not enough to terrorize the Lebanese! An earthquake of magnitude 5.0 hit southern Lebanon around noon Friday. Its tremors were felt across the country.

Lebanon’s official news agency reported that six people were injured. Three of them were hurt when a balcony fell on their heads. Media reports said people ran from their homes in panic. Roads were fissured and buildings were damaged.

Actually, Lebanon has an ancient and tragic history with earthquakes, and apparently a new natural catastrophe far more devastating than all the country’s daily political drama could be on the way. A sensational scientific report published last year proved that the land of Cedars lies dangerously close to a fault, which every 1,500 years or so erupts into a major earthquake followed by a tsunami.

Such a convulsion wiped out most major coastal cities centuries ago in old Phoenicia. Archaeologists believe that the entire city of Tripoli actually drowned. According to scientific calculations, another such catastrophe is brewing. But predictions remain very fuzzy. It could happen in days, years or even hundreds of years.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Map: This rendering of Lebanon’s many seismic fault lines was prepared by the Digital Documentation Center at the American University of Beirut. Credit: American University of Beirut.