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The study of the incidence of coseismic phenomena is becoming an increasingly demanding and fundamental need in terms of civil protection agencies. Especially landslides triggered by earthquakes can cause significant impacts and losses across wide areas affected by earthquake shaking.In this context, we present a new database of historical earthquake-induced landslides (HEILs) created within the project “Multi-scale, integrated approach for the definition of earthquake-induced landslide hazard in Italy”, funded by the Italian Ministry for the Environment. The goal of this project was to develop a multidisciplinary approach for assessing the earthquake-induced landslide hazard at national, regional and local scales, and integrating existing databases with the results from previous projects and research activities.The Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy (CFTI) database holds a central role in this research. It collects the results of over three decades of research on historical seismicity in Italy. What makes CFTI different from other earthquake catalogues is that its database does contain not only parametric data and macroseismic intensities assigned to individual localities but also synthetic descriptions of the seismic scenario for each investigated earthquake sequence. It provides a complete account of the effects on the built and natural environment. In addition, for every investigated earthquake sequence, CFTI supplies the relevant bibliography in an organized form, allowing to navigate upstream from the parameters of a specific earthquake to the original sources used to investigate that event.​​CFTI also provides descriptions of the effects induced by earthquakes on the natural environment, such as ground cracks, chasms, landslides, rockfalls, changes in the discharge rate of rivers and springs, tsunami effects, overflowing of lakes, etc. Specifically, its latest version, CFTI5Med, documents about 600 landslides associated with strong historical earthquakes.We thus reviewed and integrated data relating to HEILs, already included in the CFTI database, by identifying new landslides. We focused on the review of historical sources, newly found or already archived in the CFTI database, the analysis of recent scientific articles and technical reports. Moreover, we carried out a comparison with other digital archives such as the CEDIT (https://doi.org/10.4408/IJEGE.2012-02.O-05) and the EEE catalogue (http://eeecatalogue.isprambiente.it/). The goal was reaching a more accurate localization and definition of the slope movement types of the HEILs, when the descriptions of the historical sources allowed it, through the geographical comparison with data of different origins, such as aerial photographs, geomorphological and instability maps. These effects were associated, where possible, with the individual landslides registered in the IFFI database (https://www.progettoiffi.isprambiente.it/).The final result is a dataset with about 1,000 landslides divided into classes of location accuracy. The dataset is addressed to a large audience of potential users: researchers and scholars, administrators and technicians of local institutions, and civil protection authorities.The results are collected in a new independent database, CFTI Landslides, connected to the CFTI5Med, which is publicly accessible online through a dedicated open-source geographic interface, designed to be interoperable with both INGV and external databases.

On 21 August 1986 almost 1800 people were asphyxiated by a CO2 cloud violently released by Lake Nyos, Cameroon. Post-1986 monitoring of Lake Nyos revealed that CO2 steadily accumulates in bottom waters through recharge from soda-rich aquifers. The 1986 lake roll-over event triggered scientific research on volcanic lakes, creating “Nyos biased” interpretations: the search for dissolved CO2 in other lakes might have led to over-interpretations regarding hazard assessment. In this study, a thorough review of the historical literature on Lago Albano over the past approx. 2800 years shows no clear evidence of Nyos-type bursts, contrary to previous ideas. In 1989 Lago Albano was affected by a large CO2 pulse, concomitant with a seismic swarm below Colli Albani volcano. Tracing back in historical literature, at least two similar anomalous degassing episodes occurred out of five seismic crises between 1829 and 1927. Partial temperature- and density-driven roll-over of the top-9 m of Lago Albano commonly releases accumulated CO2 each winter (Chiodini et al., 2012). This degassing dynamics avoids long-term CO2 accumulation in bottom waters, as is the case at permanently stratified lakes in the tropics, such as Lake Nyos. Here we show that Lago Albano is an “anti-Nyos-type" lake: sudden recharge and regularly periodic release of CO2 (Lago Albano) vs. steady recharge and sudden release of CO2 (Lake Nyos). Despite past evidence of hazardous events, (1) the intensive well pumping from the Albano aquifer might lower lake level, and hence decrease the CO2 saturation pressure threshold, and (2) the absence of cold winters, hence avoiding yearly lake roll-over favoring CO2 accumulation at bottom layers, are modern factors that rise the need to revise hazard assessment and future monitoring strategies. Despite the fact that CO2 concentration in bottom waters was far from saturation conditions during the last survey (May 2010; Chiodini et al., 2012), making a limnic eruption highly unlikely, it is necessary to know the saturation state of CO2 in bottom waters and physical lake stability at any time, in order to be prepared for a next anomalous co-seismic CO2 degassing event of unknown quantity near Lago Albano.

A key element for assessing seismic hazard and risk is the availability of a comprehensive dataset on past earthquakes. Here we present the rationale, structure and contents of CFTI5Med (10.6092/ingv.it-cfti5), the 2018 version of the Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy: a large multidisciplinary effort including historians, seismologists and geologists. It was conceived in 1989, following the inception of GIS technology, and first published in 1995 to offer a full account of Italy’s strongest earthquakes, of their territorial impact and associated social and economic upheaval. Subsequent versions (1997, 2000, 2007) entailed a fine tuning of research methodologies, included additional research on Italian earthquakes, and were extended to large earthquakes of the Mediterranean area. CFTI5Med comprised an opportunity to streamline the structure of the Catalogue database and propose a renovated user interface. The new front-end (1) grants an easier, intuitive access to the data, including earthquake effects on the environment, and (2) allows all data to be displayed jointly with relevant topographic, geological and seismological overlays published as web services., Design Type(s)data integration objective • source-based data analysis objectiveMeasurement Type(s)earthquakeTechnology Type(s)digital curationFactor Type(s)geographic location • temporal_intervalSample Characteristic(s)Mediterranean Region Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data (ISA-Tab format)

This historical seismology study examines and supplements what is currently known from written sources and archaeological literature about the earthquakes that took place in the area of L’Aquila (central Italy), struck by a damaging earthquake on 6 April 2009 ( M w 6.3), from the ancient Roman period to the late Middle Ages (first through fifteenth century A.D.). The persistence and magnitude of earthquakes in this area has had a strong bearing on the economy and culture of the communities that resided there, a fact borne out by historical accounts. The goal of this revision is to prompt thinking about earthquakes missing from the hazard estimates as well as on return periods for destructive earthquakes in the area. It presents a critical collation of data previously scattered among historical catalogs and writings. Ten earthquakes are examined for their historical and cultural background with a view to highlighting the existence of written sources and explaining both the quality of the available data and the information shortfall. We also show the limits and uncertainty of the information available, coming as it does from tersely written texts giving patchy coverage. This state of knowledge is due either to sources being lost or in certain centuries not being produced (there is a millennium of “lost” earthquakes) and to the present state of historical and archaeological research in this field. The historical and archaeological data we present are often poor/hard to quantify. Yet they are known and hence pose the problem of how to improve the earthquake catalogs and devise new quantitative approaches to hazard estimation based on multi‐disciplinary dialog.

This paper presents the results of a systematic historical study of the seismic, bradyseismic and eruptive activity of the Campi Flegrei caldera. The aim is to make a revised historical data available for accurate volcanological interpretation, supplying additional data and highlighting spurious previous data. The analysis begins with the supposed 1198 eruption, which did not actually take place. No information is available for the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. As far as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are concerned, only direct sources were examined for this paper, and they include many different types of evidence. The chronological breadth of the analysis has also provided information about the seismic crises and bradyseisms prior to the eruption of 1538. The exceptional nature of this 1538 eruption attracted the attention of intellectuals, diplomats and natural philosophers, who left valuable accounts, which we have analysed, and which include many that are still available in their original manuscript form. The previous studies concerning the 1538 eruption were based on 23 (variously used) sources. We have examined 35 additional sources bringing the overall corpus of sources analysed to 58. The results provide a more precise scenario of events preceding the 1538 eruption, including bradyseismic activity starting from the end of the fifteenth century. The chronology of the phenomena described comprises the core result of this study, and has been constructed so as to clarify the time, location and impact of each event. For the 1538 eruption, a countdown is included which may also have a predictive value. For the last 36 hours before eruption began, the countdown is hour-by-hour. The effects of the eruption and earthquakes on people, structures and society are also described for Pozzuoli, Agnano and Naples. The areas where heavy materials and ash fell are likewise indicated, as well are the earth tremors felt by the population from the eruptive crisis up to 1582.

The 1224 Mt. Etna eruption is a significant event both in terms of the mass of erupted materials and because it involved the lower eastern slope of the volcano, reaching down to the sea. Nevertheless, it is unknown to current historical catalogues. According to the historical sources, only two other lava flows actually reached as far as the sea: in 396 BC, just north of the present-day inhabited area of Acireale, according to the geological data alone, and in 1669, when the lava covered the south-eastern flank of Mt. Etna and damaged Catania. We present and discuss the two medieval sources that attest to the eruption of 1224 and make available the original texts. Furthermore, through the close analysis of the historical and topographic context of the Etna area, taking account of the roads and ports in the early 13th century, we have tried to single out the possible area of the lava's outlet into the sea in 1224 on historical grounds. A repeat of an eruption similar to that of 1224 would have a serious impact today as the coast is densely populated.

Mount Etna, in eastern Sicily, Italy, is an active volcano on whose slopes are the city of Catania and several towns. The volcano, whose eruptions are noted in written sources dating back to the thirteenth century B.C., continues to hold surprises for researchers who examine its eruptive history. During extensive historical research for a new catalog of Etna's eruptions (E. Guidoboni and E. Boschi, manuscript in preparation, 2008), two maps have been found that previously were unknown in the literature. These maps, which are the most ancient ones that represent Mount Etna erupting, provide new elements to evaluate the eruption that started on 19 December 1634 and continued until June 1636.