AHEAD European Archive of Historical EArthquake DataEuropean Archive of Historical EArthquake Data

A unified catalogue containing 293 tsunamis generated in the European and Mediterranean seas since 6150 B.C. to current days is presented. It is the result of a systematic and detailed review of all the regional catalogues available in literature covering the study area, each of them having their own format and level of accuracy. The realization of a single catalogue covering a so wide area and involving several countries was a complex task that posed a series of challenges, being the standardization and the quality of the data the most demanding. A “reliability” value was used to rate equally the quality of the data for each event and this parameter was assigned based on the trustworthiness of the information related to the generating cause, the tsunami description accuracy and also on the availability of coeval bibliographical sources. Following these criteria we included in the catalogue events whose reliability ranges from 0 (“very improbable tsunami”) to 4 (“definite tsunami”). About 900 documentary sources, including historical documents, books, scientific reports, newspapers and previous catalogues, support the tsunami data and descriptions gathered in this catalogue. As a result, in the present paper a list of the 290 tsunamis with their main parameters is reported. The online version of the catalogue, available at http://roma2.rm.ingv.it/en/facilities/data_bases/52/catalogue_of_the_euro-mediterranean_tsunamis, provides additional information such as detailed descriptions, pictures, etc. and the complete list of bibliographical sources. Most of the included events have a high reliability value (3= “probable” and 4= “definite”) which makes the Euro-Mediterranean Tsunami Catalogue an essential tool for the implementation of tsunami hazard and risk assessment.

Event coordinates after Papadopoulos et al. (2007). According to Ambraseys et al. (1994), this earthquake originated between Rhodes and Cyprus, where minarets fell and church of Santa Sophia in Famagusta was damaged; the shock caused panic in both islands and sporadic damage in Crete. This was a large, destructive and tsunamigenic earthquake with an epicenter offshore Rhodes: “. . . As a result of the earthquake, the sea in Rhodes retreated and then flooded the coast 12 times with great violence, submerging the coast opposite the island and destroying five or six villages located a kilometer inland ” (Ambraseys and Finkel, 1995; Altinok and Ersoy, 2000; Papazachos and Papazachou, 1997; Yolsal et al., 2007, Altinok et al, 2011). This piece of historical information is consistent with the result obtained by Fokaefs and Papadopoulos (2007) that the upper tsunami sediment layer found in Dalaman could be attributed to the 1741 tsunami (Yolsal et al., 2007). Event revised by Papadopoulos et al. (2007), Papadopoulos and Fokaefs (2005). Further references: Soloviev et al., (2000).