Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Ta b l e 1 The earthquakes under consideration
Date
Epicentral
area
General description and
quoted historical evidence
First mentioned in
seismological literature
1656
Tripoli (Libya)
“Exceptionally strong
earthquake in Tripoli in
Libya destroyed almost half
its houses and caused the
loss of five pirate vessels in
the harbour.” (Source
quoted: Dresdnische, 1756)
Ambraseys (1984)
1673 March 10
Algiers
“A destructive earthquake in
Algiers and its surroundings,
comparable, it is said, to the
earthquake of 1716. Strong
aftershocks, 71 in all, lasted
for about 40 days” (Source
quoted: Anonymous, 1673;
Comelin and Bernard, 1735)
Ambraseys and Vogt
(1988)
1685 May 25
Tripoli (Libya)
“The earthquake made more
than 200 buildings collapse”
(Source quoted:
Anonymous, 1685)
Suleiman et al. (2004)
Harbi et al. (2005) stated that most of the eight 17th century earthquakes included
in their catalogue were either poorly known or doubtful, except that of 1673 in
Algiers, which was assessed as Io 8 MM (the parametric Ibero-Maghrebi catalogue
by Mezcua and Martines Solares, 1983 gives similar parameters, locating the earth-
quake in Algiers with Io VIII). Regrettably, Harbi et al. (2005) did not expand upon
their statement with a discussion of the local 17th century historical evidence, which
would have been of enormous help for an outside historian to assess the reliability
of non-local historical evidence against that which is local. However, this critical
judgement by an authoritative local study must be kept in mind as one appraises the
historical evidence that has been responsible for the identification of the earthquakes
listed in Table 1.
2.1 The 1656 Tripoli Earthquake
The first mention of the 1656 Tripoli earthquake in the seismological literature was
by Ambraseys (1984), followed by Ambraseys et al. (1994) and Suleiman et al.
(2004). The original historical source for Ambraseys (1984) was an 18th century
German earthquake listing (Dresdniche Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1756), according to
which this earthquake affected “Tripoli in der Barbaren”, now the capital of Libya.
This source is not necessarily unreliable just because it was published a century after
the earthquake it describes; however, as pointed out by Ambraseys (1984) himself,
there is no general consensus concerning the real location of this 1656 earthquake.
 
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