The European-Mediterranean Earthquake Catalogue (EMEC) for the last millennium

The catalogue by Grünthal et al. (J Seismol 13:517–541, 2009a) of earthquakes in central, northern, and north-western Europe with Mw ≥ 3.5 (CENEC) has been expanded to cover also southern Europe and the Mediterranean area. It has also been extended in time (1000–2006). Due to the strongly increased seismicity in the new area, the threshold for events south of the latitude 44°N has here been set at Mw ≥ 4.0, keeping the lower threshold in the northern catalogue part. This part has been updated with data from new and revised national and regional catalogues. The new Euro-Mediterranean Earthquake Catalogue (EMEC) is based on data from some 80 domestic catalogues and data files and over 100 special studies. Available original Mw and M0 data have been introduced. The analysis largely followed the lines of the Grünthal et al. (J Seismol 13:517–541, 2009a) study, i.e., fake and duplicate events were identified and removed, polygons were specified within each of which one or more of the catalogues or data files have validity, and existing magnitudes and intensities were converted to Mw. Algorithms to compute Mw are based on relations provided locally, or more commonly on those derived by Grünthal et al. (J Seismol 13:517–541, 2009a) or in the present study. The homogeneity of EMEC with respect to Mw for the different constituents was investigated and improved where feasible. EMEC contains entries of some 45,000 earthquakes. For each event, the date, time, location (including focal depth if available), intensity I0 (if given in the original catalogue), magnitude Mw (with uncertainty when given), and source (catalogue or special study) are presented. Besides the main EMEC catalogue, large events before year 1000 in the SE part of the investigated area and fake events, respectively, are given in separate lists.

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