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3.2 The Valtellina Area
In this area no relevant seismicity appears before the 20th century. Two of the al-
ready quoted false events, 1513 and 1618, were located along the tectonic lineament
called Insubrian Line; before being proved false, they provided evidence for a pos-
sible recent activity of the Line itself.
The seismic histories of Sondrio and Bormio provide data only after the begin-
ning of 20th century (Fig. 6). On the other hand, historical compilations are available
from the 14th century (e.g. Beltramolo da Silva, 14th cent.; Merlo, 16th cent.), al-
though earthquake records are not found. As an example, no records of the 1295,
Chur earthquake are found in the “Cronica Valtellinese” by Beltramolo da Silva
(14th cent.), which covers the time-window 1233-1335. This earthquake could have
produced damage in Valtellina, which is closer to the epicentral area with respect to
Bergamo, from where damage is reported by Calvi (1676):
“1295 settembre 17.
[
]
Lo sentı la patria nostra, che dall'insolito tremare della terra
atterrita, et sgomenta l'ultimo precipitio, et rovina attendeva. Termino in breve corso di
poche hore con diversi crolli, havendo nelle case infiniti danni partorito”
[1295 September 17. [
...
] [the earthquakes] was felt in our homeland, which by the unusual
trembling of the earth was frightened, and daunted, and was waiting for the ruin to come. In
a few hours the earthquake ended and caused collapses and great damage to the buildings]
...
Although one cannot exclude that some local events are missing, in the case they
really happened they should not have reached a large magnitude.
Fig. 6
Seismic histories of
Sondrio and Bormio, with
data from the 20th century on
(data from DBMI04, Stucchi
et al., 2007)
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