ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF PAST EARTHQUAKES: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE SHA OF THESSALY, CENTRAL GREECE

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Abstract
Thessaly, Central Greece, like most of the Aegean realm is characterised by a diffuse seismic activity. Both instrumental and historic data are revised and, with few exceptions, this information substantiates that the local seismicity is characterised by a shallow seismogenic depth that can generate important destructions though distributed to limited areas. However, historical sources like diaries and church books or, for more recent events, newspapers are almost completely lacking before the 17th century. On the other hand, recent palaeoseismological surveys carried out along some of the active faults of Eastern Thessaly clearly document the occurrence of past earthquakes during latest Pleistocene and Holocene times. The present research is an attempt of partially filling the gap of our knowledge on the seismicity of the area. At this regard, we followed the methodological approaches of the Historical Seismology and the Archaeoseismology. In particular, we focused our investigations on the interpretation of both direct and indirect evidences issued from Greek inscriptions, monuments and settlements of Ancient and Byzantine times. Special emphasis is given to the recently discovered Great Theatre of Larissa that shows important evidences of seismically induced damages. We analyse all this information with the intention of reconstructing the late Holocene seismic evolution of the northeastern sector of Thessaly, while the final aim of this article is the seismic hazard assessment of this region, whose major urban centre is Larissa that represents the third town of Greece.