Ancient earthquakes / Древние землетрясения

Damaging earthquakes typically recur at intervals of centuries to millennia, but the instrumental record extends for no more than a century. To reduce the hazards from earthquakes and prepare proper mitigation plans we need a longer record of earthquakes than can be provided instrumentally. Looking for ancient earthquakes may be the key to the puzzle. We defi ne ancient earthquakes primarily as pre-instrumental earthquakes that can only be identifi ed through indirect evidence in the archaeological or geological record. While the latter is the subject of paleoseismology, the former is the subject of archaeoseismology. Earthquakes that are documented in the historical record (historical seismicity) may be included if they left marks in the archaeological or geological record. The problem seismic-hazard practitioners now face is that the instrumental record is too short and the historical record too incomplete. Historical catalogues record only a tiny proportion of the major earthquakes that have struck a region over centuries and millennia (cf. Ambraseys et al., 2002). That missing population of earthquakes clearly tempers reliable seismic-hazard assessments. The archaeological record, however, can bolster and augment that historical archive. What’s more, in extending the earthquake record beyond written sources, archaeoseismology serves as a bridge between instrumental and historical seismology, on the one hand, and paleoseismology and earthquake geology, on the other hand. Only the integration of all potential evidence of ancient earthquakes will enable a better understanding of the complex earthquake history of a region. Archaeoseismology has the potential to be a legitimate and complementary source of seismic-hazard information. <...>