Materiali per un catalogo di eruzioni di Vulcano e di terremoti delle isole Eolie e della Sicilia nord-orientale (secc. XV-XIX)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a historical study carried out in the frame of Task 12 of the V3 INGV-DPC Project “Multi-disciplinary analysis of the relationships between tectonic structures and volcanic activity”. The aim of the study was to collect historical data with which to compile an integrated catalogue of the eruptions occurred on the Vulcano island and the earthquakes located in the area of the Aeolian Islands, the Gulf of Patti and the north-eastern Sicilian coast. Before the study, the amount of knowledge on Vulcano historical eruptions and Aeolian seismicity was both poor and based on very old studies (the latest was published in 1922), while the historical earthquakes of north-eastern Sicily have been studied in the last thirty years. This study collected more than 200 historical descriptions written between the 15th and 19th centuries, whose consultation leads to the identification of about 100 earthquakes (almost a third of which were unknown to previous studies, of 20 eruptions occurred on the Vulcano island (mostly known to previous studies, but in some cases either doubtful or wholly fictitious) and also a few traces of Stromboli volcanic events, though these latter had not been searched for in a systematic way. The study includes a catalogue of Volcano eruptions of the 1407-1899 period and provides for each studied event a synopsis of the effected investigation and its results, with a table of the macroseismic intensities and the transcription of the available historical information on the studied event.