The accuracy of preinstrumental earthquake data, which cover longer time periods than instrumental recordings, and a more widespread assessment of macroseismic intensity data have significantly improved the knowledge of the seismic behavior of many regions of the world. The importance of these data is now widely recognized, and such an awareness stemmed from the realization that even though instrumental seismological data have now existed for about one century, this remains too short a period to cover the recurrence interval of large earthquakes and to accurately describe and examine any possible temporal change of seismicity.Although in comparison with the instrumental...

中文翻译：

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焦点部分“地震历史数据的过去与现在”的序言

仪器前地震数据的准确性（比仪器记录更长的时间）以及对宏观地震烈度数据的更广泛评估大大改善了世界许多地区对地震行为的了解。这些数据的重要性现已得到广泛认可，并且这种认识源于以下认识：即使仪器地震数据已经存在了大约一个世纪，但这段时间仍然太短，无法涵盖大地震的复发间隔并无法准确描述并检查地震活动的任何可能的时间变化。