The First World Catalog of Earthquake‐Rotated Objects (EROs), Part I: Outline, General Observations, and Outlook

Abstract

We present the first world catalog of earthquake-rotated objects (EROs). The catalog is composed of 2053 EROs originating during 184 earthquakes that oc- curred between 1349 and 2014. The catalog is organized into two tables that contain information about the source earthquakes and about the observed EROs, respec- tively. EROs are observed to occur following earthquakes in the Mw 4.0–8.3 range at localities marked by intensities in the interval I 3:5 (Medvedev–Sponhauer– Karnik [MSK] scale) to I 11 (modified Mercalli intensity [MMI] scale) and at epicentral distances as far as 445 km. We also present some qualitative analyses of the basic details of the catalog with respect to the parameters of the two data tables. These, along with the most complete quantitative analyses of the catalog presented in Part II of the study (Lombardi et al., 2016), provide interesting clues to address possible relations between EROs occurrence and a number of customary seismological observables, such as magnitude, intensity, epicentral distance, and fault orientation. Finally, we suggest that the utilization of the present catalog will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism that induces the EROs occur- rence and ultimately to provide important insights into the applications for earth- quake engineering.