The determination of earthquake location and magnitude from macroseismic data in Europe

Abstract

This paper describes how the earthquake parameters of historical earthquakes have been determined in Europe from macroseismic data by means of the so-called “Boxer” method, in the frame of the European Commission 2009-2012 Project SHARE (Seismic Hazard Harmonization in Europe). The problems related to the assessment of magnitude are described with more detail; the methodological issues are developed with special reference to the “Stable Continental Region”. The paper first describes how the coefficients of the Boxer method are determined in five tectonic regions of the European area from the relevant calibration data sets, and discusses the problems dealt with while performing this task. Then it describes how the results have been checked against data different from those used in the previous phase. Finally, the application of the new coefficients to nearly a thousand of European earthquakes before 1900 is described. Stressing that, for the first time in Europe, homogeneous results have been obtained at such a large scale, the final part of the paper is devoted to analyse such results, with special reference to the general trends and to some case-histories.