Publication Date:
2017-04-04
Description:
Southern Italy is one of the most tsunamigenic
areas in the Mediterranean basin, having experienced during
centuries a large number of tsunamis, some of which very
destructive. In particular, the most exposed zone here is the
Messina Straits separating the coasts of Calabria and Sicily
that was the theatre of the strongest Italian events. In 1783–
1785 Calabria was shaken by the most violent and persistent
seismic crisis occurred in the last 2000 years. Five very
strong earthquakes, followed by tsunamis, occurred in a short
interval of time (February–March 1783), causing destruction
and a lot of victims in a vast region embracing the whole
southern Calabria and the Messina area, Sicily. In this study
we re-examined these events by taking into account all available
historical sources. In particular, we focussed on the 5
and 6 February 1783 tsunamis, that were the most destructive.
As regards the 5 February event, we found that it was
underestimated and erroneously considered a minor event.
On the contrary, the analysis of the sources revealed that in
some localities the tsunami effects were quite strong. The 6
February tsunami, the strongest one of the sequence, was due
to a huge earthquake-induced rockfall and killed more than
1500 people in the Calabrian village of Scilla. For this event
the inundated area and the runup values distribution were estimated.
Further, the analysis of the historical sources allowed us
to find three new tsunamis that passed previously unnoticed
and that occurred during this seismic period. The first one
occurred a few hours before the large earthquake of 5 February
1783. The second was generated by a rockfall on 24
March 1783. Finally, the third occurred on 9 January 1784,
probably due to a submarine earthquake.
Description:
Published
Description:
1053-1060
Description:
open
Keywords:
tsunami
;
1783–1784 Calabrian
;
04. Solid Earth::04.06. Seismology::04.06.05. Historical seismology
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
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