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 About 900 documentary sources, including historical documents, books, scientific reports, newspapers and previous catalogues, support the tsunami data and descriptions gathered in this catalogue.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.

Earthquake coordinates from Papazachos and Comninakis (1982). Earthquake intensity and magnitude from Papazachos and Papazachou (1997). Tsunami magnitude and runup value from Kuran and Yalciner (1993). Catastrophic earthquake devasting Istanbul, Gallipoli and many other cities, particularly on the coasts of the Marmara Sea. In Istanbul thousands of houses collapsed together with a large part of the city walls. Down-town residential quarters collapsed (Antonopoulos, 1980). At Costantinople, during the shock the sea rushed inland, over the walls and flooded the streets in the city as well as the settlements outside the walls. The district of Galatas was heavily damaged by the sea-wave that caused many casualties (Lavender, 1612; Knolles, 1603; Lycosthenes, 1557). Near Galata and near Hereke Bay (north of gulf of Izmit) the coasts were flooded (Kuran and Yalciner, 1993). In Yenikapi the waves overtop the sea walls whose crown height is about 6 m (Kuran and Yalciner, 1993). Depending on recent archeological findings in Yenikapi the inundation distance in this region can be estimated as 500-600m along the paleo-Lycus (Bayrampa§a) stream valley (Altinok et al., 2011). Aksaray was flooded (Altinok et al., 2011). Altinok and Ersoy (2000), quoting Ambraseys and Finkel (1995) report that along the coast, the sea flooded the shores and waves crashed against the walls in the narrows between Pera and Istanbul. The tsunami waves of the earthquake overtopped the sea walls in Yenikapi, the wave height was most probably more than 6.0 m. The Izmit shipyard collapsed and waves flooded the dockyard (Altinok and Alpar, 2006; Altinok et al., 2011)