Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Descriptive Catalogues of Historical
Earthquakes in the Eastern Mediterranean
and the Middle East; Revisited
N. N. Ambraseys
I met Jean Vogt in London about 35 years ago; there and then, it became clear that
there was an affinity between us. He was an indefatigable protester of the system in
which science works today, and the fact that he always called a spade a spade, often
did not endear him to others. His profession was his hobby and he did not depend
on others in his work
.
Jean had an absurd sense of humour. He would encapsulate his impression about
earthquake cataloguers concisely and succinctly. There were cataloguers, he said,
who padded their work, others who “went through open doors” in their research,
and those whose assessment of historical data was made ad absurdum
.
Shortly after the excellent topic by Alexandre was published in 1990 (Alexandre,
1990) which showed that 70% of the earthquakes between 394 and 1259 in West-
ern European countries reported in national catalogues were either spurious, or
doublets, Jean suggested that we do the same depoillement of the more important
catalogues for Europe. However, our project didn't go very far. Far enough however
to allow us to derive the “Alexandre coefficient” for three of the most authoritative
European catalogues which had a coefficient greater than 30%
.
What follows is a potpourri of observations and conclusions drawn from my
own experience with the study of historical earthquakes in which Jean played an
important role in formulating and that came into fruition in some of our papers
.
Throughout the ages earthquakes have been one of the most destructive natural
hazards, if not to human life itself, most certainly to the works of man. Earth-
quake hazards are not always perceived to their full extent. They have long been
associated with crises in human affairs, the extent of the crisis being inversely pro-
portional to the financial resources of the country. They are seen as having certain
effects or consequences which are rarely specified in advance or fully understood.
In a developing country of limited resources and with investments concentrated, the
consequences of a large earthquake should be feared as much as the phenomenon
itself.
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