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 About 900 documentary sources, including historical documents, books, scientific reports, newspapers and previous catalogues, support the tsunami data and descriptions gathered in this catalogue.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. (2010). This is a large, destructive earthquake that ruptured the SW Peloponnese and caused very extensive destruction in Philiatra and many other towns and villages; at least 326 persons were killed and at least 796 were injured (Galanopoulos, 1941, 1953; Papazachos and Papazachou, 2003). The earthquake had long duration in Heraklion, Crete, and was felt in remote places of the Mediterranean Sea, such as Malta, Trieste, Alexandria, Cairo, Syria and Asia Minor (Papadopoulos et al., 2010). Along a coastal segment about 35 km long, from Agrilio to the north up to the bay of Navarino (Pylos) to the south, a tsunami was observed and a coastal strip 10 to 15 m wide was inundated for a while (Galanopoulos, 1941). According to a report of Forster (1890), director of the East Telegraph Company in Zakynthos, and a correspondence of the newspaper of Heraklion “Nea Evthomas” , a telegraph cable between Crete and Zakynthos was entirely cut at a distance of about 29 miles to the south of Zakynthos (Stavrakes, 1890), which may indicate either submarine slumps and/or turbidite currents triggered by the earthquake (Papadopoulos et al., 2010). Event revised by Papadopoulos et al. (2010), Papadopoulos and Fokaefs (2005).