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Phenomena

1755 Lisbon Earthquake

Seismology

On the morning of All Saints' Day 1755, an earthquake, the fires it started and the tsunami that followed destroyed most of Lisbon. The Marquis of Pombal's systematic parish-by-parish survey of what happened made it the first earthquake studied scientifically across a whole region, and it is regarded as the founding event of modern seismology and earthquake engineering. Its philosophical shock ran just as deep, provoking Voltaire and Rousseau to argue over what the disaster meant. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
Magnitude or Scale
Modern estimates place the moment magnitude between 7.7 and 9.0 1
No instruments existed in 1755; the magnitude is reconstructed from shaking accounts, damage and tsunami records, and estimates genuinely differ across this range.
Death Toll
Roughly 30,000 to 40,000 dead in Lisbon; totals across Portugal, Spain and Morocco estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 1
Contemporary records are incomplete and scholarly totals differ by region counted; a further 10,000 may have died in Morocco.
Event Date
1755-11-01 1
Location
Epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 kilometers west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal 1
Connections

Caused By

Faulting, Processes

Read from this phenomenon's own Wikipedia article (1755 Lisbon Earthquake); earth5 pass cause judgment: Faulting.

Source Wikidata: 1755 Lisbon Earthquake

In Discipline

Seismology, Disciplines

Regarded as the founding event of scientific seismology; the first earthquake studied systematically across a whole region.

Source 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Found In

Portugal

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. 1755 Lisbon Earthquake (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, hit the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time.
  • In Group: Great Historical Earthquakes, Lead sentence
    The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, hit the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time.
View the Source
Wikidata: 1755 Lisbon Earthquake
Wikidata Q191055, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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