October 22, 1522 Tsunami: Azores, Portugal

22 Oct 1522. The numerous references made to the sea in the original texts, together with comparisons forwarded by a eyewitness (clergymen) between this catastrophe (which lasted the time of "one Creed") and biblical accounts of divine punishment by " ...earth motions and flooding" (cf. Archivo do Acores, 1878) may explain the explicit reference to "flooding and agitation of the sea" in the first mentioned source. However, no other account corroborating the flooding of Vila Franca do Campo or any other location in the Azores in consequence of this earthquake and following mass movement has been found so far. The possibility that the landslide could have generated a small tsunami when entering the ocean cannot be discarded; however (if it actually happened), the waves must have dissipated shortly after generation. Baptista ( 1998) refers to this event quoting the same anonymous source and assigned it as "poorly reliable''. (reference #5046)

22 Oct 1522. (Probable tsunami). According to Walker (1886), besides the great calamity caused by the earthquake and landslide, the sea also rose with a great wave that threatened to flood the coast. Nonetheless, this report should be regarded with some reserve as its source remains unknown. Most authors who have studied this event (e.g. Moreira 1988; Andrade et al. 2006; Borges et al. 2008) are uncertain about the occurrence of a tsunami. According to Moreira (1988), historical documents do not reveal the existence of any tsunami or sea turmoil after the catastrophe. Baptista (1998), Andrade et al. (2006) and Borges et al. (2008) quote one undated text from an anonymous account mentioning the village flooding because of a tsunami. However, these same authors consider this source not very credible [...] Considering that this event occurred at night and that Vila Franca was almost completely buried with many people killed, there is no clear evidence regarding a tsunami.(reference #13057)

Frutuoso recounts how the earthquake ‘broke away a great part of a hill at the foot of the mountain, which is above the town […] it swept everything before it, like thunder’. This is a clear description of a high-mobility landslide. When the landslide reached the waterline it ‘took possession of the sea and entered it’, generating a tsunami-type wave that damaged boats anchored about 700m off the coast (Andrade et al., 2006). Several survivors were swept into the water clinging to wooden planks and trees and even, in one case, a bed. One ‘very large boulder crossed the whole village from the hills to the sea […] where it came to rest in the old port […] entering the water for about forty paces’ (all quotations from Frutuoso, 1998: Chapter 70). (reference #13600)

Reference #4139 lists source region as Azores, with reliability as “improbable tsunami”