Tuesday, November 01, 2005

 

Lisbon Earthquake - 250 Years

_________________________________________________________________

Do Fundo do Mar
November 01, 2005



The 1755 Lisbon earthquake struck on the morning of November 1, the All Saints' Day Catholic holiday.

Contemporary reports state that the earthquake lasted between three-and-a-half and six minutes, causing gigantic fissures five meters wide to rip apart the city center.

The survivors rushed to the open space of the docks for safety and watched as the water receded, revealing a sea floor littered by lost cargo and old shipwrecks.

Several tens of minutes after the earthquake, an enormous tsunami engulfed the harbor and downtown, rushing up the Tagus River. It was followed by two more waves.

In the areas unaffected by the tsunami, fire quickly broke out, and flames raged for five days. Lisbon was not the only Portuguese city affected by the catastrophe.

Throughout the south of the country, in particular the Algarve, destruction was general. The shockwaves of the earthquake were felt throughout Europe as far as Finland and North Africa.

Tsunamis up to 20 meters in height swept the coast of North Africa, and struck Martinique and Barbados across the Atlantic.

A three-meter tsunami hit the southern English coast. Also hit by tsunami was Galway of the west coast of Ireland where the "Spanish Arch" was partly destroyed.


________________________________________________________________




O Terramoto de 1755

O sismo fez-se sentir na manhã de 1 de Novembro, no feriado católico do dia de Todos-os-Santos. O epicentro não é conhecido com exactidão, havendo diversos sismólogos que propõem locais distanciados de centenas de quilómetros. No entanto, todos convergem para um epicentro no mar, entre 150 a 500 quilómetros a sudoeste de Lisboa. Devido a um forte sismo ocorrido em 1969 no Banco de Gorringe, este tem sido apontado como tendo forte probabilidade de aí se situar o epicentro.

Relatos da época afirmam que os abalos foram sentidos, consoante o local, entre seis minutos e duas horas e meia, causando fissuras gigantescas de cinco metros que cortaram o centro da cidade de Lisboa. Com os vários desmoronamentos os sobreviventes procuraram refúgio na zona portuária e assistiram ao abaixamento das águas, revelando o fundo do mar, cheio de destroços de navios e cargas perdidas. Poucas dezenas de minutos depois, um maremoto de grandes proporções, que actualmente se supõe ter atingido 20 metros de altura, fez submergir o porto e o centro da cidade. Nas áreas que não foram afectadas pelo tsunami, o fogo logo se alastrou, e os incêndios duraram pelo menos cinco dias.

Source: Wikipedia




____
www.dofundodomar.blogspot.com

Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?