Exploring the potentiaI of seismologicaI compilations: J. Schorn (1902) and the seismicity of Tyrol

Abstract

Seismological compilations of the past two centuries have represented one of the main sources of supporting data for the compilers of current parametric earthquake catalogues, On the one hand, their quality and reliability was proved as varied and, in many cases, fairly low; on the other hand, it is not clear whether all the earthquake records they supply have been exploited to become part of the present knowledge of the historical seismicity of some European countries. This paper analyses one of these compilations, Die Erdbeben von Tirol und Vorarlberg, published in 1902 by J. Schorn, which covers an area today shared among Austria, Switzerland and Italy, with the aim of checking its reliability and its usefulness towards a revision of the knowledge on the seismicity of historical "Tyrol".