GNGTS 2024 - Atti del 42° Convegno Nazionale

Session 1.1 GNGTS 2024 The harsh life of an earthquake in the region that doesn't exist S. Baranello 1,2 , R. Camassi 1 , V. Castelli 1 1 Isttuto Nazionale di Geofsica e Vulcanologia, Bologna, Italy 2 Università degli studi di Bologna – Dipartmento di Fisica e Astronomia The historical research on earthquakes ofen clashes with harsh reality: if the earthquake is not destructve, if it occurs during a partcularly complex historical period, dominated by wars, epidemics, and other misfortunes, there is the possibility of its memory being lost. Sometmes, in additon to the scant producton of testmonies about the earthquake and its impact, possible problems arise in the preservaton of such testmonies. And fnally, the obstacle course of the historical seismologist can fnd many doors closed today. Literally. And this happens especially in the region that doesn't exist... When any of these circumstances (or all of them) occur, research must necessarily pursue not only writen testmonies but also simple clues, indirect evidence of the earthquake's occurrence, such as local traditons, the presence of a local earthquake-related cult, etc. Barata (1901) devotes only a few very generic lines to the Molise earthquake of May 1712. First of all, he says that an earthquake was felt in early May in Naples, and that it caused panic among the Neapolitans. To this news, Barata adds that an earthquake was also felt in Campobasso where "some houses and churches were ruined." Finally, he mentons several shocks that were felt in Benevento between May and June 15. Barata's sources are respectvely a summary of the Bologna Gazete published by De Rossi (1889) and a brief menton of Campobasso by Sarnelli (1716). In the Postpischl (1985) catalogue, these pieces of informaton are summarized into an event dated generically to May 1712, located in Bojano, with an epicentral intensity of VIII MCS (Tab. 1). Tab. 1 – The earthquake of May 1712 in the catalogues by Postpischl (1985) and Rovida et al. (2022) In the early 1990s, in the frame of the “Hazard Project” - that led to the compilaton of various versions of the parametric catalogue, along with the in-depth study of many hundreds of medium- high-energy earthquakes - approximately 250 earthquakes were swifly reviewed through a simple Year Mo D a H o M i Lat Lon Int Ref Epic. Zone POS85 1712 5 - - 41 30 14 30 VIII 75 BOIANO CPTI15 1712 05 08 - - 41.561 14.660 6-7 AMGNDT995 Campobasso