Abstract
<p>A unified catalogue containing 290 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 About 900 documentary sources, including historical documents, books, scientific reports, newspapers and previous catalogues, support the tsunami data and descriptions gathered in this catalogue.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.</p>
Highlights
In the last two decades the interest of the scientific community in tsunami studies has increased significantly, especially in terms of hazard assessment and risk reduction
One of the last EU financed project was TRANSFER (Tsunami Risk ANd Strategies For the European Region, 2006-2009), which aimed to improve the knowledge of tsunami processes within the EM area, in particular assessing the risk associated with tsunami and establishing risk methodologies and risk reduction policies, from prevention to mitigation
The project covered the whole Mediterranean basin, the north-eastern Atlantic, the North Sea and the Marmara and Black Seas and it maintained the continuity with the previous European projects such as GITEC and GITEC-TWO One of the main goals of the project was the upgrading of the GITEC-TWO tsunami catalogue that covers the same area and that was the result of efforts of various European research groups co-operating in the previous EU projects
Summary
In the last two decades the interest of the scientific community in tsunami studies has increased significantly, especially in terms of hazard assessment and risk reduction. The occurrence of catastrophic Indonesian (2004) and Tohoku (2011) tsunamis lighted out the necessity of taking adequate countermeasures to protect coastal areas from this threat and implementing tsunami warning systems in all the regions prone to tsunami. In this context, the attention of scientists was drawn on the European area where the tsunamigenic hazard was for long time underestimated. The European Union answered this demand by financing scientific projects on tsunami research in the EuropeanMediterranean (EM) area, in order to develop strategies for tsunami risk reduction. The project covered the whole Mediterranean basin, the north-eastern Atlantic, the North Sea and the Marmara and Black Seas and it maintained the continuity with the previous European projects such as GITEC and GITEC-TWO One of the main goals of the project was the upgrading of the GITEC-TWO tsunami catalogue that covers the same area and that was the result of efforts of various European research groups co-operating in the previous EU projects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
