Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Past: A Guide

This handbook defines the discipline of historical seismology by detailing the latest research methodologies for studying historical earthquakes and tsunamis. It describes the various sources that reference seismic phenomena, discusses the critical problems of interpreting such sources, and presents a summary of the theories proposed throughout history to explain the causes of earthquakes. Incorporating examples from a broad geographic region (including Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, and the Americas), the text presents numerous interpretations and misinterpretations of historical earthquakes and tsunamis in order to illustrate the key techniques. The authors also tie historical seismology research to archaeological investigations, and demonstrate how new scientific databases and catalogues can be compiled from information derived from the methodologies described. This is an important new reference for scientists, engineers, historians and archaeologists, providing a valuable foundation for understanding the Earth's seismic past and potential future seismic hazard.

Emanuela Guidoboni, a historian by training, is a Senior Scientist and Head of the Historical Seismology and Volcanology Unit at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Bologna, Italy. From 1983 to 2007, she served as Director of Storia Geofisica Ambiente (SGA), Bologna, a company specializing in the study of earthquakes and other historical environmental phenomena. Dr Guidoboni is a leading expert in the historical seismicity of the Mediterranean region, and the author of a number of important historical earthquake catalogues and more than 100 scientific publications. John E. Ebel is a Professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics and Director of the Weston Observatory at Boston College, Massachusetts, where his research interests include theoretical, exploration and earthquake seismology. Professor Ebel was awarded the 2003 Jesuit Seismological Award and the 2004 Service to the Seismological Society of America Award.

Preface	p. ix
Defining historical seismology
What is historical seismology?	p. 3
The interest in historical earthquakes and tsunamis	p. 3
The historical approach to seismology	p. 6
Some key ideas in historical seismology	p. 8
The importance of historical earthquake and tsunami data	p. 11
The scientific understanding of earthquakes and tsunamis	p. 11
Earthquake catalogues and their history	p. 26
Issues concerning the interpretation of historical earthquakes and tsunami data
Written historical sources and their use	p. 39
A definition of historical sources	p. 39
Types of written historical sources	p. 41
Types of scientific sources: historical interpretations of earthquakes (an excursus from the ancient world up to the twentieth century)	p. 147
Theories and treatises of the past	p. 147
Scientific studies and services	p. 186
Other types of sources	p. 195
Historical earthquake cartography	p. 195
Iconographic sources (drawings, frescoes, etc.)	p. 204
Sources written with light	p. 206
Unwritten sources	p. 217
Potential problems in historical records	p. 221
Problems inherent in the historical sources	p. 221
Problems inherent in the use of historical sources	p. 228
False and lost earthquakes	p. 247
Determination of historical earthquakes: dates and times	p. 263
The need for a common time base for earthquake catalogues	p. 263
Dating styles and practice in ancient Mediterranean cultures	p. 265
Years, months and days	p. 265
The measurement of the hours from the ancient world to the modern era	p. 284
Earthquake duration	p. 294
Practical guidelines for the analysis of historical earthquake data
Planning the goals of analysis of historical earthquake data	p. 299
Reviewing existing earthquake and tsunami catalogues	p. 299
The search for fresh historical data	p. 302
Different research strategies for large and small earthquakes	p. 304
Seismic crises, sequences and multiple earthquakes: picking them out from among the sources	p. 314
Foreshocks and aftershocks: why targeted research is useful	p. 320
Epicentres at sea or on land?	p. 322
The completeness of an earthquake catalogue: some general considerations from the historical point of view	p. 325
Processing historical records	p. 329
The validation of historical data	p. 329
Classifying a list of references	p. 332
From interpretation of historical records to historical seismic scenarios	p. 336
Constructing seismic scenarios: a painstaking montage of different elements	p. 336
Terminology and modes of expression	p. 337
Place-names, administrative boundaries, frontiers and their changes	p. 341
Territorial factors in seismic scenarios	p. 345
Human impact	p. 352
The effects of earthquakes on construction practices	p. 366
Effects in towns: constructing an urban seismic scenario of the past	p. 378
Effects on the natural environment	p. 380
Identifying faulting and liquefaction features in historical accounts	p. 394
Tsunamis: loss of data and descriptive uniformity	p. 401
Earthquake effects on a regional scale: outlining a complex seismic scenario	p. 413
Traces of earthquakes in archaeological sites and in monuments	p. 418
Historical seismology and archaeology	p. 418
Traces of earthquakes in historical construction and monuments	p. 437
Deriving earthquake source and shaking parameters and tsunami parameters from historical data	p. 473
On the dates and times of earthquakes and tsunamis from historical records	p. 475
Macroseismic intensity and historical reports	p. 480
Comparing historical and modern earthquakes to estimate earthquake location, size and strength of ground-shaking	p. 488
Estimating tsunami parameters from historical data	p. 504
Cooperation in historical seismology research	p. 514
The accuracy of historical earthquake and tsunami data	p. 515
Improving earthquake catalogues	p. 517
Improving seismic hazard estimations	p. 520
Bringing seismologists, historians and archaeologists together	p. 521
Glossary	p. 523
Bibliographical summaries	p. 531
References	p. 537
Index	p. 584
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Past: A Guide to Techniques in Historical Seismology

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