The University of Athens Hellenic Macroseismic Database for Historical Earthquakes

Abstract

During the last decade, a systematic study of historical earthquakes leading to the quantification of earthquake effects in terms of macroseismic datapoints (MDPs) and, consequently, to earthquake parameters, has been carried out in the Laboratory of Seismology of the University of Athens. For each earthquake, the available background information has been evaluated and the corresponding macroseismic intensities assessed in terms of EMS98. A considerable amount of studied earthquakes contributed to the Archive of Historical EArthquake Data (AHEAD) and MDPs are now part of its European Macroseismic Database, via European initiatives (NERIES, SHARE). Based on standards proposed by AHEAD, a local database was designed, incorporating historical earthquakes of the period 1000-1899, mainly from the eastern Aegean area. The database includes 93 events with Ix≥7 (683 MDPs) and 1053 events with Ix<7 (1205 MDPs). The data is accessible on the Internet at http://macroseismology.geol.uoa.gr/