Euro-Mediterranean Tsunami Catalogue (EMTC)

version 2

Origin time, epicenter coordinates, macroseismic magnitude and earthquake intensity (MCS scale) from Rovida et al. (2016).

A seismic crisis occurred in January -February, 1742 in Tuscany (central Italy) with epicentral location near Livorno.

On January 27, anomalous sea rising and lowering were observed in Livorno harbor. In the open sea sailors noted an anomalous sea rising and an unusual storm (Pedini, 1744; Boccacci, 1842; Mattei, 1745; Gentili, 1742).

According to Guidoboni et al. (2018), on January 27, 15 min before the shock, the sea water dropped for about 1 m and after the shock a tsunami wave flooded the shore and inundated the street in the city. The water reached a height of many meters, touching the image of the Madonna di Montenero located in the Vittorio Emanuele square. In the coastal area some trees were rooted.

A fisherman who was in the sea in front of Livorno referred that the boat was lifted by a huge wave and when it suddenly went down he had the impression that the boat touched the sea bottom (Guidoboni et al., 2018)

• Boccacci O. M., (1842). Relazione giornaliera dei terremoti seguiti in questa città di Livorno nel mese di gennajo 1742. Tipografia Luigi Angeloni, Memorie di Casa Boccacci di Livorno (in Italian).
• Rovida A., Locati M., Camassi R., Lolli B., Gasperini P. (eds), (2016). Catalogo Parametrico dei Terremoti Italiani (CPTI15). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). https://doi.org/10.6092/INGV.IT-CPTI15  [link]
• Gentili G., (1742). Osservazioni sopra i terremoti ultimamente accaduti in Livorno, descritte dal dottore Giovanni Gentili medico della sanità di quella cittàin una lettera al dottore Antonio Cocchi professore di medicina in Firenze. Editor Gio. Battista Bruscagli e Co., All'Insegna del Centauro, XV p., 4°, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Firenze (in Italian).
• Mattei G.A., (1745). Memoria di tutto quello che è seguito per occasione delle scosse di terremoto accaduto nell' anno 1742. Quoted in I terremoti Livornesi del 1742 e i documenti officiali, by P.Vico, 1910, Rivista di Fisica Matematica e Scienze Naturali, 9, 309-336 (in Italian).
• Pedini P.R., (1744). A letter written to the most Rev.Father D.Cla. Fremond Camaldolense, Publick Professor in the University of Pisa, Giving an Account of the Earthquakes Felt in Leghorn, from the 16th to the 27th of January 1742. With Some Observations Made by the Most Reverend Sig. Pasqual R. Pedini, Principal of the Clergy of the Most Eminent College of the Said City. Communicated to the Royal Society of London by James Jurin, M. D. F. R. S. &c. Phil. Trans. 1742 42 462-471 77-90. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1742.0026  [link]
• Tinti S. and Maramai A., (1996). Catalogue of tsunamis generated in Italy and in Côte d'Azur, France: a step towards a unified catalogue of tsunamis in Europe. Annali di Geofisica, vol. 39, n.6, 1253-1299.
• Tinti S., Maramai A. And Graziani L., (2004). The new catalogue of Italian tsunamis. Natural Hazards, 33, 3, pp. 439-465.
• Soloviev S.L., Solovieva O.N., Go C.N., Kim K.S and Shchetnikov N.A., (2000). Tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea 2000 B.C. - 2000 A.D.. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Guidoboni E., Ferrari G., Mariotti D., Comastri A., Tarabusi G., Sgattoni G., Valensise G. (2018). CFTI5Med, Catalogo dei Forti Terremoti in Italia (461 a.C.-1997) e nell’area Mediterranea (760 a.C.-1500). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). https://doi.org/10.6092/INGV.IT-CFTI5  [link]