The online tsunami catalogue was created by Mira Pasarić and Jadranka Šepić. The catalogue is based on an article by Miroslava Pasarić, Beatriz Brizuela, Laura Graziani, Alessandra Maramai, and Mirko Orlić (Historical tsunamis in the Adriatic Sea, Natural Hazards, 61, 2012, 281-316).
The catalogue contains information on 15 tsunamis observed on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea. The earliest described event occurred on 26 March 1511 in the Gulf of Venice, and the last event occurred on 15 April 1979 in Montenegro.
For each of the events described, known sources of information are given, along with a description of sea level variability. Where known, information on the epicentre of the earthquake and an estimate of macroseismic intensity and earthquake magnitude are given.
Tsunami intensity is given, using both the 6-grade Sieberg-Ambraseys (1962) scale (to be consistent with older catalogues) and the now more widely used Papadopoulos and Imamura (2001) scale.
Finally, the modified Iida reliability scale (Tinti et al. 2004) is given for each event. This scale ranges from degree 0, corresponding to a “very improbable tsunami,” to degree 4, corresponding to a “definite tsunami.” The reliability assessment consists of a separate evaluation of the information in three categories: (a) generating cause, (b) description of tsunami impact, and (c) quality of documentary sources. Each category is scored at one of three levels, and the final reliability is then derived from the combination of these partial scores; if the final score is very low, then the minimum conditions for classifying the event as a tsunami are not met, and it is classified as ‘not a tsunami’ (such events are not described in our catalogue).