This special issue of the Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie has its focus on the geological signature of extreme events in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean region is subject to manifold natural hazards by earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, volcano eruptions and extreme storms, e.g. so-called “medicanes”. However, the highest risk and death toll is induced by earthquakes and secondary effects, like the 2016 series in Italy (Norica, Amatrice) and before in L’Aquila (2009) or the Finale Emilia events in 2012. Besides the Italian events, mainly Greece (Athens 1999, Kos 2017) and Turkey (1999) are affected. This volume represents a variety of new findings in the field of natural hazards, and the editors have compiled a set of 10 different studies. Altogether, they document how important it is to expand the time scale for hazard studies beyond the past 150 or so years when environmental data have been measured more or less constantly by different kinds of scientific instruments. The geological record of extreme events in the Mediterranean is full of high-magnitude low-frequency events that have not been in the focus so far; sometimes not even recognized. The editors, therefore, appeal to intensify research on past extreme events stored in geological archives in order to complete and improve our knowledge on the dimensions and dynamics of Mediterranean hazards.
- Editorial: Signatures of extreme events recorded in geological archives of the Mediterranean / Reicherter, Klaus; Vött, Andreas; Mathes-Schmidt, Margret; Papanikolaou, Ioannis; Schneiderwind, Sascha p. 1-6
- Publicity waves based on manipulated geoscientific data suggesting climatic trigger for majority of tsunami findings in the Mediterranean – Response to 'Tsunamis in the geological record: Making waves with a cautionary tale from the Mediterranean' by Marriner et al. (2017) / Vött, Andreas; Bruins, Hendrik J.; Gawehn, Matthijs; Goodman-Tchernov, Beverly N.; De Martini, Paolo Marco; Kelletat, Dieter; Mastronuzzi, Giuseppe; Reicherter, Klaus; Röbke, Björn R.; Scheffers, Anja; Willershäuser, Timo; Avramidis, Pavlos; Bellanova, Piero; Costa, Pedro J.M.; Finkler, Claudia; Hadler, Hanna; Koster, Benjamin; Lario, Javier; Reinhardt, Eduard; Mathes-Schmidt, Margret; Ntageretzis, Konstantin; Pantosti, Daniela; Papanikolaou, Ioannis; Sansò, Paolo; Scicchitano, Giovanni; Smedile, Alessandra; Szczuciski, Witek p. 7-45
- The earthquake and tsunami of 426 BC in Greece: observations by Thucydides and contextual interpretations / Freitag, Klaus; Reicherter, Klaus p. 47-62
- Extreme wave events recorded in sedimentary archives of the Geropotamos River (north-central Crete, Greece) / Werner, Vera; Baika, Kalliopi; Tzigounaki, Anastasia; Reicherter, Klaus; Papanikolaou, Ioannis; Emde, Kurt; Fischer, Peter; Vött, Andreas p. 63-100
- Event deposits in the Eastern Thermaikos Gulf and Kassandra Peninsula (Northern Greece): evidence of the 479 BC "Herodotus tsunami" / Mathes-Schmidt, Margret; Papanikolaou, Ioannis; Reicherter, Klaus; Pallikarakis, Aggelos p. 101-125
- Constraining the regional uplift rate of the Corinth Isthmus area (Greece), through biostratigraphic and tectonic data / Pallikarakis, Aggelos; Papanikolaou, Ioannis; Reicherter, Klaus; Triantaphyllou, Maria; Dimiza, Margarita; Koukousioura, Olga p. 127-142
- Major flood events recorded in the Holocene sedimentary sequence of the uplifted Ladiko and Makrisia basins near ancient Olympia (western Peloponnese, Greece) / Vött, Andreas; Willershäuser, Timo; Röbke, Björn R.; Obrocki, Lea; Fischer, Peter; Hadler, Hanna; Emde, Kurt; Eder, Birgitta; Gehrke, Hans-Joachim; Lang, Franziska p. 143-195
- The sedimentary record of the Alkinoos Harbour of ancient Corcyra (Corfu Island, Greece) – geoarchaeological evidence for rapid coastal changes induced by co-seismic uplift, tsunami inundation and human interventions / Finkler, Claudia; Baika, Kalliopi; Rigakou, Diamanto; Metallinou, Garyfalia; Fischer, Peter; Hadler, Hanna; Emde, Kurt; Vött, Andreas p. 197-246
- Historical earthquakes in the Lower Segura basin (SE Spain): geological and archaeological evidence from pre-roman to modern times / Silva, P.G.; Giner-Robles, J.L.; Elez, J.; Roquero, E.; Rodríguez-Pascua, M.A.; Pérez-López, R.; Martínez-Graña, A.; Bardají, T.; Perucha, M.A. p. 247-269
- Lichenometric dating of coseismic rockfall related to the Great Lisbon Earthquake in 1755 affecting the archaeological site of "Tolmo de Minateda" (Spain) / Pérez-López, R.; Giner-Robles, J.L.; Rodríguez-Pascua, M.A.; Silva, P.G.; Roquero, E.; Bardají, T.; Elez, J.; Huerta, P. p. 271-293
- The Holocene sedimentary record of the flood plain of the Saint-Ciers-Sur-Gironde marsh (Gironde estuary, France) / Mathes-Schmidt, Margret; Moiriat, Denis; Jomard, Hervé; Reicherter, Klaus; Baize, Stéphane p. 295-322