The great earthquake of 1755. Lisbon is, of course, the capitol and largest city of present day Portugal. On November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake estimated to be between 8.5 and 9 on the modern Movement Magnitude Scale, destroyed a large part of the city. Just to make things worse, the epicenter was located under the ocean floor, so the quake was quickly followed by a 20 foot high tsunami. But the disaster wasn't over. As the waters receded, fires broke out burning much of what was left. In all, 60,000 people out of an estimated population of 180,000 died. That's one out of three for those who can't do the math. Too, an estimated 12,000 dwellings were destroyed.
Time to leave this collection for awhile. Click on Views of the World at the bottom of the post to see other cards in the series.
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