ECLiq: European interactive catalogue of earthquake-induced soil liquefaction phenomena

Soil liquefaction is a well-known ground instability phenomenon that may occur during earthquakes. This paper presents a novel catalogue of earthquake-induced manifestations of soil liquefaction occurred in Europe in the latest 1000 years or so. This unique digital archive, named “European interactive Catalogue of earthquake-induced soil Liquefaction phenomena” ECLiq, contains documented historical information regarding liquefaction-related phenomena (e.g. sand ejecta and boils, soil settlements and lateral spreading, ground and structural failures) triggered by seismic activity in continental Europe. It is publicly available as web-based GIS (Geographical Information System) platform at the link http://ecliq.eucentre.it/. Data and metadata were gathered within the time window 1117–2019 AD and include: the main seismological characteristics of the earthquake (e.g. UTC date, epicentre coordinates, magnitude, etc.), location of the site where liquefaction phenomena were documented, a description of the features of ground failure. The archive was built within the framework of LIQUEFACT, a 3.5-year research project funded under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. LIQUEFACT is the largest research project on the assessment and mitigation of risks associated with earthquake-induced soil liquefaction ever funded by the European Commission. Indeed, data and information have been retrieved, collected, critically reviewed and harmonized to compile a composite, homogeneous, and well-documented catalogue of earthquake-induced liquefaction occurrences in Europe. ECLiq is built as an interactive digital archive fully accessible as WebGIS and, as such, it will be useful to a broad range of stakeholders and end-users. ECLiq may help decision makers in identifying urban areas susceptible to undergo liquefaction-induced damage. Furthermore, it may also encourage the scientific community to upgrade soil liquefaction risk models.