I’m a late sleeper, so I typically would have never been awake before the sun, but this day was different. My animal instincts must have kicked in, because I felt the shaking start just as I awoke feeling that something wasn’t right.
I’ve lived in Portugal for a total of just under 30 years, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt major tremors like I did that morning. Our house has been standing for over two hundred years, so I didn’t think it was going to come down, but I was worried that a taiko drum would fall on my husband Momo’s head (he was sleeping in the studio, which is filled with enough musical instruments for a museum).
After about three seconds maybe, the shaking stopped.
I think that was the first time my heart pounded like that for three seconds…
Then, as the shaking subsided, I heard, “Hey! Did you guys feel that?!”
He was coming closer with what sounded like… a bit of enjoyment in his voice?
“Hey, are you OK?” he said, going to the kids’ room. It was early Monday morning. They probably wanted to sleep.
Well, he was probably worried since he didn’t make any noise during the shaking.
My phone started chirping a few minutes later as nearby friends and family started messaging me. The social media posts started up, too.
Apparently there were people in Lisbon who woke up when all the dogs started barking at once.
They reported the magnitude at 5.3.
According to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), the epicenter was in the North Atlantic Ocean, 84 kilometers south-southwest of Lisbon at a depth of 21 kilometers. There was no tsunami risk. The posts on social media indicated that people felt the quake in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. No fewer than nine aftershocks were later reported in Portugal, all of them minor.
Source: Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre
You may not know that Portugal is actually a very seismically active area. The Eurasian plate and African plate are colliding off of the southern coast of the mainland, which is the cause of most of the earthquakes the country experiences. There are also quite a few destructive faults located underneath mainland Portugal itself, independent of the plates.
Source: researchgate.net
Though we don’t feel shaking here very often, earthquakes actually occur quite frequently. If you go to the IPMA website, you can see the earthquake situation for yourself. The list on the lower left shows recent measurements. The map on the lower right records relatively large tremors.
Source: IPMA
Source: earthquaketrack.com
Lisbon suffered a devastating earthquake in 1755, pretty much destroying the entire city. The magnitude of that quake is estimated to be 8.5 or higher. Frighteningly, it fell on All Saint’s Day, a Christian holiday where churches celebrate the saints—meaning that the majority of the citizens were in church and ended up pinned under the collapsing ceilings and walls. The burning candles started fires, which spread into a massive conflagration that consumed the city for hours. Those who survived fled to the docks along the river to stay safe, only to find that the water had rushed out, leaving behind a muddy plain scattered with wrecked ships and cargo. About 40 minutes later, a tsunami swallowed the entire port and downtown area.
Lisbon wasn’t the only place that felt the effects of the great disaster. The Algarve in particular suffered massive damage, and the Madeira Islands and Spain were impacted as well.
The earthquake was so strong that the tremors spread across the entire European continent, reaching as far as Finland and North Africa. Some sources say that it could even be felt in faraway Greenland and the Caribbean Islands. A letter from the Brazilian authorities describing damage and destruction from massive waves was discovered in 2015, suggesting that the resulting tsunami may even have reached the Brazilian coast.
The great earthquake destroyed 85% of the buildings in Lisbon. Famous palaces, libraries, hospitals, and opera houses came down, and the detailed historical records chronicling the adventures of Vasco da Gama and other early seafarers were entirely lost.
I sometimes try to imagine what Lisbon must have been like before, and how it would be today if it hadn’t been almost entirely destroyed back then.
Lisbon has been changing quickly over the past several years, becoming flooded with tourists from all over the world. If the city hadn’t been rebuilt in the 18th century, it may have been popular as an ancient historical site like Rome or Athens. It probably would have also been covered in a maze of narrow roads like the Alfama region, which was mostly spared from the impact of the quake.
Either way, Portugal will always be bathed in gentle light, and Lisbon will always have a certain melancholy to it.
