March 22, 1840 Earthquake: Sorsogon,masbate Is,casiguran,albay, Philippines

Reference #414:

1840, March 22. In the morning there was an earthquake (magnitude 6.5) in Sorsogon Province on Luzon Island. The church at Sorsogon was destroyed, injuring many people. Many homes were also destroyed; 17 people died and about 200 were injured. Churches were destroyed at Legaspi (Albay) and Casiguran. There was destruction at Masbate. The shore of Sorsogon Bay subsided 1 1/2 m (5 feet).The sea inundated a large area of the coast and the homes nearest to the shore line. According to some sources, 35 people drowned [There is no direct information about a tsunami, but the possibility of a tsunami is not excluded.]

Reference #1072:

1840. Destructive earthquake in Sorsogon and Masbate. Ruined the masonry buildings. Intensity IX.

Reference #1058:

1840, March 22. Intensity IX. Sorsogon. Destructive, several victims.

Reference #3029:

1840, March 22. Morning. Province of Sorsogon, Luzon. Documents relating to this earthquake were preserved, before the war, in the archives of the Diocese of Naga. One is a petition from the Municipal President and eight leading citizens of the town of Sorsogon for the construction of a new church of light material. "As our church was destroyed by the earthquake of Sunday, March 22, 1840, during high mass, injuring many of those present, we desire to reconstruct it of wood and nipa because the earthquakes are still very frequent in this place." The second document is a report of the Provincial Governor of Albay, in which he mentions that the earthquakes had destroyed the church and, "as a result of the said earthquakes the bottom of the bay of Sorsogon seems to have undergone some change, because at the present time boats of

deep draft anchor at places where formerly faluas grounded at low tide, and the sea has invaded a great part of the beach and the houses which were nearest the shore."

MS2, No. 160, pp. 190-191.

Father Saderra Maso found copies of these documents in the archives of the Philippine Government, but gives the date of the Governor's letter as February 22, 1843. MSM, pp. 91-92. In March, 1938, these documents could not be located in the government archives because they had recently been moved and were not in order.

Further details: "In 1840 Sorsogon suffered severely from an earthquake, which lasted almost continuously for thirty-five days. It raged with greatest fury on the 21st [sic] of March. The churches, both of Sorsogon and Casiguran, as well as the smallest stone houses, were destroyed; seventeen persons lost their lives, and two hundred were injured; and the whole neighborhood sank five feet below its former level." FJ, p.112.