The catastrophic floods of AD 1617 in Catalonia (northeast Spain) and their climatic context

[EN] This paper presents a reconstruction of the catastrophic floods of AD 1617 in Catalonia (northeast Spain). Compilation of archival data sources shows that heavy rainfall occurred from 2 to 6 November 1617 and that the resultant flooding caused severe damage throughout the region, including the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Thorndycraft, V. R., Barriendos, Mariano, Benito, Gerardo, Rico, María Teresa, Casas Planes, M. A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2006
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/12737
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/12737
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Documentary records
Floods
Little Ice age
Northeast Spain
Palaeodischarge
Palaeoflood hydrology
Sources documentaires
Crues
Petit age Glaciaire
Nord-est de l'Espagne
Paléo-débits
Paléohydrologie
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] This paper presents a reconstruction of the catastrophic floods of AD 1617 in Catalonia (northeast Spain). Compilation of archival data sources shows that heavy rainfall occurred from 2 to 6 November 1617 and that the resultant flooding caused severe damage throughout the region, including the destruction of at least 389 houses, 22 bridges and 17 water mills. Discharges of 2700–4500 m3 s−1 and ≤2000 m3 s−1 were estimated from dated palaeostage indicators for the Ter and Segre rivers, respectively, whilst 4680 m3 s−1 was calculated for the Llobregat River flood in a previous study (Thorndycraft et al., 2005). The magnitude of the 1617 floods of the Llobregat and Ter rivers exceeded the largest events of the instrumental data series (2300 and 2350 m3 s−1, respectively). The 1617 floods are also compared to the longer-term palaeoflood record, which shows that the largest floods in the region were associated with colder phases of climatic variability.