Estimate of seismological parameters for the 1908 Messina earthquake through a new data set within Sismos project

Abstract

The 1908 earthquake is one of the most catastrofic event in the italian history, recorded by most of the historical seismic stations existing at that time. Some of the seismograms recorded by these stations have already been used by many authors for the purpose of studying source characteristics, although only copies of the original recordings were available. Thanks to the Euroseismos project (2002-2007) and to the Seismos project, most of the original data (seismogram recordings and instrument parameter calibrations)for these events are now available in digital formats. The Sismos database has recently acquired many original seismograms and related instrumental parameters for the 1908 Messina earthquake, recorded by 14 stations distributed worldwide and never used before in previous works. We have estimated the main event parameters (i.e. location, Mw and focal mechanism) with the new dataset. The aim of our work is to provide the scientific community with a reliable size and source estimation for accurate and consistent seismic hazard evaluation in Sicily, a region characterized by long term high seismicity.