THE MOST IMPORTANT ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS TRIGGERED BY HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKES FROM 17TH TO 19TH CENTURY IN THE APULIA REGION (CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA)

The Apulia (Southern Italy) has been hit by several low energy and a few high energy earthquakes from 17th to 19th century. The aim of this study is a critical revision of the historical and recent seismicity of the Apulian region and surrounding seismogenetic areas, for re-evaluating the macroseismic effects in MCS scale and ground effects in natural environment according to the ESI 2007 scale (Michetti et al., 2007; Guerrieri et al., 2015). In particular, the February 20, 1743 earthquake, the strongest of the Salento area and the July 30, 1627 earthquake, the strongest of the Gargano promontory have been reviewed. Moreover we have evaluated the most important effects on land in the Salento and Gargano area. The use of both traditional MCS macroseismic intensity scale and the ESI 2007 scale gives a more accurate image of the earthquakes (Porfido et al., 2007) and allowed us to better constrain the seismic hazard assessment in the Salento peninsula.