May 26, 881 Earthquake: Spain, Algeria, Morocco

881 May 27 Morocco, Algeria (reference #1222)

881 Cadiz. 36 N, 8 W Magnitude 7.5 (reference #2764)

881 May 26. Golfo de Cadiz. (reference #12773)

881. Golfo de Cadiz. 36 N, 8 W. Tsunami generated. (reference #1193)

881, 26 May. This earthquake is first listed by Moreira de Mendoza (1758) who quotes Mariana (Mariana, 1601,lib. 7, cap. 19): "Only in the year 881 there were earthquakes in the whole of Spain with damage and destruction of many buildings" [...]This is the first earthquake in the Iberian Peninsula for which there is an accurate date [...] Munuera (1963), Mezcua and Martinez-Solares (1983) and Martinez-Solares and Mezcua (2002) list this earthquake with the date 26 May. Munuera (1963) locates it at South of Portugal (37.5N, 8W) and Mezcua and Martinez-Solares (1983) at the Gulf of Cadiz (36N, 8W). Martinez-Solares and Mezcua (2002) at Gulf of Cadiz without coordinates. Poirier and Taher (1980) date it on 27 May and place it in Andalusia, Morocco and Algeria with intensity X. (reference #12774)

A wealth of information of Arabic authors exists about a large earthquake that took place on the 26th of May 881 (the first earthquake in the Iberian peninsula for which the exact date is known) and probably corresponds to the area of the Saint Vincent Cape. The oldest work where it is mentioned is by Ibn Adhari, a Moroccan author of the thirteenth century which refers to damage in Cordova, the most important Arabian city in South Spain at the time. Mention of the earthquake is also found in the work by Ibn Abi Zar, a Moroccan author of the fourteenth century. The text refers to large damage in the Maghreb and Andalucia, but nothing is said about any phenomenon in the sea. (reference #12772)

the earthquake was felt particularly strongly in El Adoua or Al-Magrib (possibly in the vicinity of Fez, Morocco), Tlemcen (Algeria), Tangier (Morocco) and throughout Al-Andalus. Likewise, they say that the earthquake had its affected from the Mediterranean Sea or Al-Sham Sea – the Syrian Sea, one of the names that Muslims used for the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages – to the northernmost part or al-Magrib al -Aqsa – a term for the westernmost region of Morocco [...] In other words, it was felt across the entire Iberian Peninsula. For his part, Ibn Idari mentions that the earthquake was felt with great force in Cordoba and, for his own, Ibn Abi Zar affirms that there was a tsunami, confirmed in this study for Estepona [...] Analysis of the historical texts confirms not only the approximate date of the catastrophe (May 26), but also its possible location in one of the faults or canyons in the Alboran Sea. (reference #13092)