November 1, 1755 Earthquake: Lisbon, Portugal

A large earthquake at about 9:50 a.m. in Lisbon, Portugal, generated a tsunami that affected the coast of Portugal, Spain, North Africa and the Caribbean. The tsunami reached Lisbon about 20 minutes after the first destructive shock. Damage from the earthquake extended to north of Granada, Spain. The earthquake and tsunami killed between 60,000 and 100,000 people.

Magnitude 8.5 - 8.75 (ref #1338)

1755, Nov 1. Portugal and Azores, the tsunami and earthquake caused 30,000 deaths. Meknes, Morocco, 10,000 deaths. (ref #1051)

1755. Lisbon, Fes, int XI. (ref #1222)

36 N 11 W, int IX, 8000 deaths (ref #1093)

37 N 10 W int X. (ref #1193)

36 N 11 W int XI (ref #537)

60,000 to 100,000 deaths (ref #1598)

The earthquake magnitude has been estimated as 8.5, inferred from isoseismal maps (Martins and Mendes Victor, 1990) although Arroyo and Udias (1972) refer estimates of the magnitude as high as 8.9; according to Abe (1989) the tsunami magnitude is Mt=Mw=8.5. The assumed epicenter location, inferred from isoseismal maps is 37 N 10 W (Galbis Rodriguez, 1940). (ref #2702)

The Azores-Gibraltar plate boundary is the source of the November 1, 1755 Lisbon earthquake with estimated magnitude Mw 8.5-9.0 (e.g., Johnston, 1996; Muir-Wood and Mignan, 2009). (ref #11006)

Ref #516:

The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 has long held a place among the great earthquakes of the world. This it owes not only to the destruction of a well-known city or to the area disturbed by it, though the loss of life probably amounted to fifty or sixty thousand, and the region over which it mas felt must have contained more than a million sq. miles. It would seem rather to be due to a feature that has not, in any other earthquake, been so widely and notably observed-the remarkable seiches or oscillations of the water in lakes far beyond the limits of the disturbed area, in countries so distant as the north of Scotland and the centre of Sweden.

No trustworthy estimate has ever been made of the total loss of life in Lisbon and elsewhere. None, indeed, was possible, for the bodies were removed from the city without being counted. The earthquake occurred on All Saints' Day, at the time of the first mass, and thousands were collected in the churches. Most of these were killed, for very few of the churches and convents escaped destruction. The number of killed in Lisbon alone is usually placed at about 30,000, but some estimates rise as high as 50, 60 and even 70, thousand. These figures, it should be noted, take no account of the losses in other places such as Faro, where 3,000 persons are said to have been killed, or Fez, Mequinez, Morocco and other towns in North Africa, in or near which many thousands of lives were lost.

In the lower part of the city, the destruction of property in the narrow streets was almost universal. Less than three weeks after the earthquake, one writer went over the ruined city. "There are", he says, "no signs of streets, lanes, squares, etc., but hills and mountains of rubbish still smoking". Out of about 20,000 houses in Lisbon, there remained hardly 3,000 that were habitable with safety. Among those lost or seriously damaged, must be reckoned 32 churches, more than 60 small chapels, 31 monasteries, 15 nunneries and 53 palaces.

The damage wrought by the earthquake was completed by the fires that broke out some minutes later in six or seven different places, and soon spread over the ruined city. The outbreak of fire was due mainly to the fall of curtains and woodwork on kitchen fires and on the candles and lamps that illuminated the altars in every church and chapel in the city, and, to a slight extent, on the work of incendiaries bent on plundering the ruins. The fires, aided by a violent wind, continued burning for six days, without any attempt being made to stop their progress, until most of what the earthquake had spared was consumed.