Lower Austria is the province most frequently affected by earthquakes in Austria. The typical seismically active areas in Austria are the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria, the Inn Valley in Tyrol, the Mur-Mürz Valley in Styria and southern Carinthia.

In the 20th century more than 360 earthquakes were recorded in the Vienna Basin, including 17 damaging earthquakes. Many studies focusing on seismicity in Lower Austria (Suess, 1874; Drimmel, 1980, 1981b; Eisinger et al., 1992) have been conducted in the past along with studies on the geological set-up (e.g. Wessely, 1988) of the Vienna Basin where most of the earthquakes in Lower Austria occur.

Two projects funded by the Provincial Government of Lower Austria were combined to investigate the historical (Hammerl, 2004, 2005, 2006) and recent (Lenhardt & Hammerl, 2010) earthquake activity since 1000 A.D. to ensure a high level of scientific research on seismicity in Lower Austria. These investigations led to a multitude of new knowledge by either reinterpretation of existing data or new findings. This study represents the first comprehensive investigation of such detail on the topic of earthquakes in Lower Austria. For the first time the original literature and contemporary sources prior to 1900 that were used in the study are documented in detail. A list of locations includes all macroseismic data points (MDPs) for Lower Austria between 1000 and 2009. These MDPs are the basis for the reconstruction of the seismic history of each location mentioned in the list.