Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy (461 B.C.-1997) and Mediterranean Area (760 B.C.-1500)

Abstract

The Catalogue lists earthquakes that occurred in Italy between 461 B.C. and 1997, and earthquakes that occurred in the general Mediterranean area between the VIII century b.C. and the XV century.

Italian earthquakes are based on the latest release of the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in Italia (Catalogue of Strong Italian Earthquakes), commonly referred to as CFTI3 (Boschi et al., 2000), with subsequent additions and improvements. The CFTI4 contains all Italian earthquakes having epicentral intensity VIII or larger and a selection of smaller earthquakes (total number of earthquakes: 1257). All data supplied in the Catalogue are based on ad hoc historical investigations and on specifically reinterpreted and discussed historical sources. Since its first 1995 release the Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti has been substantially extended and improved with respect to a) the earthquakes analyzed, b) the number of historical sources considered, and c) the number of assessed intensities.

Mediterranean earthquakes are based on two catalogues: the Catalogue of Ancient Earthquakes in the Mediterranean area up to the 10th century (Guidoboni et al., 1994), containing 300 earthquakes that involved 19 present-day countries around the Mediterranean, and on the Catalogue of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Mediterranean area from the 11th to the 15th century (Guidoboni and Comastri, 2005), containing 383 earthquakes relative to 19 countries. Overall the CFTI4 containes 1,739 earthquakes, 482 of which occurred outside of Italy. Both catalogues report historical sources in their original language.

The Catalogue is accessible through a specifically designed web-GIS interface. All commands are easy to use and fully described in English in the Help section. Due to the nature and history of the Catalogue, however, the comment texts that accompany all Italian earthquakes are currently available only in Italian.

To allow their visualization in the web-GIS environment of the Catalogue, data on Mediterranean earthquakes have been reorganized following the same standards and format as the data on Italian earthquakes. Nevertheless, some of the information available for Italian earthquakes may not be readily available for all Mediterranean earthquakes.

General information on the adopted method of historical research and on the structure and contents of the Catalogue is given in a series of articles published in a special issue of ANNALI DI GEOFISICA (vol.43, N. 4, August 2000) along with CFTI3 (Boschi et al., 2000). Although there have been significant advancements since the year 2000, these articles describe satisfactorily the main research issues, most of which are still the object of scientific debate.