INGV Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia

History and Founding

The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is Italy's national research institute for geophysics and volcanology, established in 1999. It was created by merging several pre-existing national bodies, including the National Institute of Geophysics (ING, which had earthquake monitoring responsibilities since the early 20th century), the Vesuvius Observatory, and other volcanological observatories. Today INGV is funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research and maintains approximately 2,000 employees distributed across headquarters in Rome and sections in Milan, Bologna, Pisa, Naples, Catania, and Palermo.

Earthquake and Geophysical Data

INGV is among the top 20 research institutions globally by scientific publication output in its field. Its primary public service responsibilities include continuous monitoring of the national seismic and volcanic networks and disseminating data to the civil protection system. The institute publishes a wide range of earthquake and geophysical datasets through its main website and the dedicated data portal at data.ingv.it.

Collections and Holdings

INGV's data holdings include: the Italian Seismological Instrumental and Parametric Database (ISIDe), covering events from 1985 to the present; the Parametric Catalogue of Italian Earthquakes (CPTI); the Italian Macroseismic Database (DBMI15), with intensity observations spanning from 1000 CE; the Catalogue of Strong Earthquakes in Italy (CFTI5Med, covering 461 BC to 1997); and historical seismogram archives from the SISMOS and TROMOS projects, with digitized recordings dating back to 1895. Real-time earthquake locations, ShakeMaps, and waveform data are publicly accessible online.

Access and Usage

Earthquake data is available through the INGV main site and the dedicated ONT (Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti) portal at terremoti.ingv.it. Data is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licensing. Web services (FDSN-compliant) allow programmatic data retrieval. INGV coordinates with Italy's Civil Protection Department under a formal framework agreement requiring real-time reporting of significant seismic events.