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The 1790 Oran Earthquake, a Seismic Event in Times of Conflict along the Algerian Coast: A Critical Review from Western and Local Source Materials

2018; Seismological Society of America; Volume: 89; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1785/0220180175

1938-2057

Redouane Chimouni, Assia Harbi, Mohamed Salah Boughacha, Mouloud Hamidatou, Radia Kherchouche, Amal Sebaï,

Earthquake Detection and Analysis

Research Article| August 22, 2018 The 1790 Oran Earthquake, a Seismic Event in Times of Conflict along the Algerian Coast: A Critical Review from Western and Local Source Materials Redouane Chimouni; Redouane Chimouni aCentre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria, harbi.assia@gmail.comcAlso at Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediène, USTHB, FSTGAT, Laboratoire de Géophysique, BP 32, El Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Assia Harbi; Assia Harbi aCentre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria, harbi.assia@gmail.comdAlso a Simons Fellow at Abdus Salam, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera, 11, I‐34151, Trieste, Italy. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Mohamed Salah Boughacha; Mohamed Salah Boughacha bUniversité des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediène, USTHB, FSTGAT, Laboratoire de Géophysique, BP 32, El Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Mouloud Hamidatou; Mouloud Hamidatou aCentre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria, harbi.assia@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Radia Kherchouche; Radia Kherchouche aCentre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria, harbi.assia@gmail.comcAlso at Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediène, USTHB, FSTGAT, Laboratoire de Géophysique, BP 32, El Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Amal Sebaï Amal Sebaï aCentre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, BP 63, Bouzaréah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria, harbi.assia@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Seismological Research Letters (2018) 89 (6): 2392–2403. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220180175 Article history first online: 22 Aug 2018 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Redouane Chimouni, Assia Harbi, Mohamed Salah Boughacha, Mouloud Hamidatou, Radia Kherchouche, Amal Sebaï; The 1790 Oran Earthquake, a Seismic Event in Times of Conflict along the Algerian Coast: A Critical Review from Western and Local Source Materials. Seismological Research Letters 2018;; 89 (6): 2392–2403. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220180175 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietySeismological Research Letters Search Advanced Search ABSTRACT This research appraises the most known destructive earthquake that occurred in the second most important Algerian city, along with the seismic history of that city. The earthquake that struck Oran in 1790 and that was the reason for the leaving of the Spanish, who had been colonizing the city since the early sixteenth century, is cited in innumerable documentary sources; however, few scientific studies were devoted to this specific event. These studies, which in general are exclusively based on Spanish sources, show that the 1790 Oran earthquake is quite different from the other known destructive seismic events that occurred in Algeria in its historical and recent times. To better constrain the 1790 earthquake location and magnitude, an investigation of Algerian sources was performed in the documentary assets. In this article, the historical details are assessed from the perspective of the social and political situations contemporaneous with the event, and the macroseismic field is reconstructed using, for the first time, the Algerian sources jointly with the European sources. Our reappraisal of the 1790 Oran earthquake shows how difficult it is to assess the characteristic parameters of an earthquake that occurred amid war because the macroseismic information is strongly influenced by the effects of the conflict, and the reliability of the data sources is thereby limited. This study highlights how important is to take into consideration the historical and sociological context when analyzing the macroseismic information of any historical earthquake. Our critical review of this seismic event and its comparison with other destructive Algerian earthquakes show that the 1790 Oran earthquake was not as large as past studies had led us to believe. We reevaluated the maximum intensity from IX–X European Macroseismic Scale (EMS) in previous studies to VIII EMS. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.