The BASE-Project – an open-source catalogue for earthquakes in Bavaria, Germany

Abstract. The BASE-project collects all earthquakes which have been recorded in historical documents in Bavaria up to the installation of the first major seismograph in 1905. 27 crucial publications of the past two centuries have already been assessed and the reports, 1112 in total, have been filed in a data base. Included are not only all events which have been recorded for Bavaria itself, but also events which have been felt and recorded in Bavaria, but may have taken place in neighbouring countries. The data base will be published on the internet. In a second step public users of the data are encouraged to take part in the improvement and completion of the data base. This especially aims at local historians, librarians etc. who can contribute to the data base by adding information and data from local archives or documents, which would otherwise be virtually inaccessible for the public.