Some events in Central Italy: are they all tsunamis? A revision for the Italian tsunami catalog

Abstract

he catalogs available in the literature show that tsunamis affecting Italian coasts are not very strong, except for a few well analyzed events, i.e. the Messina December 28, 1908 tsunami. This study aims at making a careful revision of some minor tsunamigenic events, in particular those occurred along the coasts of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea, considering tsunamis associated with earthquakes, from 1700 to 1919. These events have been poorly studied so far, and need a check to verify their reliability, even though they are reported in the catalogs. The results show how it is difficult to get a clear definition of those tsunamis, because of a gap in the historical sources, in spite of the large amount of seismological data concerning earthquakes related to the anaIyzed tsunamis. This analysis proposes to delete from the catalog some events for which a clear groundlessness appeared.