Geoscience Reference
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A rigorous review of an important set of the contemporary accounts of the earth-
quake of 1428 has been carried out. It is the first time that an interpretation of this
earthquake has been made, bearing in mind the reappraisal of the seismic sequence
of 1427 and that of the earthquake of 1448.
The destructive effects caused in some localities by the previous 1427 earth-
quakes were considered. Given that the epicentral zones of the earthquake of 1427
and that of 1428 do not coincide, it is possible to evaluate the epicentral intensities
independently. By contrast, for certain localities devastated in March 1427 (Vall
d'Amer and Vall d'en Bas) and those affected by the earthquake on 15 May 1427
(Vall d'en Bas, Olot
) the descriptions record the accumulated effects of both
1427 and 1428 earthquakes. Some of these localities have not assigned intensity
values because of the impossibility of discriminating between the effects of the dif-
ferent earthquakes. Only destruction or probable damage is indicated in such cases.
Data from some French localities were incorporated (Fig. 3). A review and anal-
ysis of the records from the French archives (Lambert 1993) led to the exclusion of
some towns, as Bordeaux, Libourne and Montpellier, among others, which had been
included in earlier studies. This is an important finding when evaluating the exten-
sion of the area of perception; with the available documentation it seems that the
earthquake was not felt at distances larger than 300 km. from the epicentre. Cadiot
(1979), had proposed an epicentral intensity of X-XI, basing himself on a larger
area of perception.
According to the new results of our study, the epicentre of the 2 February 1428
earthquake is located near the village of Camprodon, about 15 km to the West from
the location from Banda and Correig (1984). We assign an epicentral intensity of
IX (EMS-98) instead of IX-X (MSK) as given by Banda and Correig (1984) or
even X-XI given by Cadiot (1979). Provided that this earthquake is the largest one
known in historical times in the study region, the above conclusions are of special
relevance for the seismic hazard assessment.
...
6 The 1448 Event: Earthquake and Meteorological Effects Mixed
The proximity of the earthquake of February 2nd, 1428 to that of the event of 1448
(only 20 years earlier) probably coloured the accounts that are available for this last
earthquake.
This study is significant with respect to earlier ones (Salicru 1995) as it is the first
work to assess the effects of this earthquake in terms of point intensity. As explained
in the previous sections, in this study damages produced by former earthquakes
(1373, 1427, 1428) have been considered when assessing the intensity at specific
sites. Looking at some of the documentary sources mention to hydro-meteorological
episodes was found. Then, a more intensive search for sources related to extreme
meteorological episodes was carried out by establishing an interdisciplinary collab-
oration between historians, climatologists and seismologists (Olivera et al. 2004). It
was clear that at specific sites some damages attributed to the earthquake had already
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