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The Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 in Spanish Contemporary Authors

2009; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-1-4020-8609-0_2

1872-4671

Agustín Udías, A. López Arroyo,

Geological and Geochemical Analysis

The Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755 was felt over the whole Iberian Peninsula causing heavy damage by the shaking and subsequent tsunami, specially, in the nearby Spanish cities of Huelva, Cadiz and Seville (Martinez Solares 2001; Martinez Solares and Lopez Arroyo 2004). This extraordinary event produced an abundant literature published in Spain, especially in Seville. Many were short popular accounts about how the earthquake was felt in some determined localities or religious considerations about the event, most of them anonymous. These were generally short works of a few pages of a popular character with exaggerated narratives of damages or curious occurrences during the earthquake. Some were of religious character asking or giving thanks for the deliverance from the effects of the earthquake; a few of them were written in verse. Other publications were extended treatises on the physical, philosophical and religious aspects of the event, written by ecclesiastics, philosophers and scientists. A list of the publications we have identified and examined is given in Appendix 1 (publications with author) and in Appendix 2 (anonymous works). Most authors writing about the earthquake that we will examine in some detail handled two questions. The first was whether this was a natural event or a supernatural one, that is, one directly attributed to God. The second was about the natural causes of this earthquake and, in general, about the origin of earthquakes. In this second question traditional and modern ideas were presented and debated. Regarding the characteristics of this particular earthquake it was discussed, especially, how it was possible that the earthquake, which caused the main destruction in Lisbon, was felt at the same time in regions separated by long distances through the Iberian Peninsula and as far as central Europe and how it generated such large waves in the ocean.