Resumen de Historical earthquakes (before 1755) of the Iberian Peninsula in early catalogs
Early lists or catalogs of earthquakes constitute what can be called, in some sense, the first type of seismological works. They give the date, time, place, and size of each earthquake in chronological order, providing the first organized knowledge of seismic activity beyond the description of individual occurrence of earthquakes and their damage. In early earthquakes lists or catalogs (before the twentieth century), all source parameters such as date, time, location, and size are rather approximate estimates. Date may be reduced to the year, place to the region, city, or town that suffered the greatest damage, and size to an adjective such as "terrific", "large", or "light". One must not confuse these estimates with the much more precise date, origin time, epicenter location, and magnitude of modern catalogs based on instrumental observations. However, some modern catalogs give also very precise values of these parameters for historical earthquakes with insufficient evidences for the parameter assignments. For example, assigning very precise magnitude values to historical earthquakes is a very common but misleading practice in many modern catalogs, with its potentially detrimental consequences in seismic risk studies.
Two main problems must be considered when considering earthquake catalogs: the inclusion of each particular earthquake and the historical evidence on which it is based. The study of historical earthquakes is based on written sources or archeological evidence. The most reliable historical sources are naturally those of contemporary authors or of authors who quote contemporary sources that are not preserved. In the absence of contemporary accounts of the events, we may find reliable information preserved by later historians who may have had access to sources nearer in time to the events, although they may...
