Exploiting the legacy of N.N. Ambraseys: known and unknown earthquakes in the Anatolian area

Abstract

N.N. Ambraseys left us a wealth of papers and volumes on a number of topics; many of them concern the historical earthquake investigation. One of the last works is the 2009 volume (Ambraseys in Earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of 2000 years of seismicity, Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 2009), where he summarizes the results of more than thirty years of investigation through archives and libraries, covering earthquakes of a large area, from Albania to Caucasus. For each earthquake, a short summary of the main effects is supplied, together with the list of the sources used. Such information is intended as material for assessing location and size of the earthquakes, task that the author accomplished only in a very preliminary way for a few earthquakes, only. In addition to exhaustive descriptions of the most known earthquakes and the relevant historical sources, the volume contains information on a large number of earthquakes, so far unknown to the current earthquake catalogues. This paper intends to represent a homage to his immense work, partially showing the potential of his volume. We briefly present here some case histories, including the preliminary location and size of the earthquakes – known and unknown—around Anatolia. We add some examples of how he was able to prove that some alleged earthquakes are actually to be considered as fake or very doubtful. We also present the damage information supplied for some known and unknown earthquakes, and how they can be used for assessing location and size of them.