Abstract
Abstract. Catastrophic tsunamis are described in historical sources for all regions around the Gulf of Cadiz, at least since 60 BC. Most of the known events are associated with moderate to large earthquakes and among them the better studied is 1 November 1755. We present here a review of the events which effects, on the coasts of the Portuguese mainland and Madeira Island, are well described in historical documents or have been measured by tide gauges since the installation of these instruments. For a few we include new relevant information for the assessment of the tsunami generation or effects, and we discard events that are included in existing compilations but are not supported by quality historical sources or instrumental records. We quote the most relevant quantitative descriptions of tsunami effects on the Portuguese coast, including in all pertinent cases a critical review of the coeval sources, to establish a homogenous event list. When available, instrumental information is presented. We complement all this information with a summary of the conclusions established by paleo-tsunami research.
Highlights
Catastrophic tsunamis are described in historical records related with all countries around the Gulf of Cadiz (El Mrabet, 1991; Campos, 1992; Baptista et al, 1998a), a key tsunami prone area in Europe associated with the western segment of the Eurasia-Nubia plate boundary
The oldest catalog of earthquakes and tsunamis written in Portuguese is called “Historia Universal dos Terramotos que tem havido no mundo de que hanoticia desde a sua criacao ateao seculo presente” (Universal History of Earthquakes occurred around the world, since its creation up to the current century) published by Mendonca (1758)
On 18 November 1929, 20:32 UTC, a M=7.2 earthquake occurred at the southern edge of the Grand Banks triggering a large submarine slump with a volume estimated as 200 km3 (Fine et al, 2005) that moved along the Laurentian slope, rupturing 12 transatlantic cables and generating a tsunami that crossed the north Atlantic
Summary
Gulf of Cadiz affect a large area, SW Portugal, South Spain and Morocco; the largest ones affect the SW Irish and UK coasts and the Caribbean (e.g. Haslet and Bryant, 2008). Miranda: Portuguese catalog of tsunamis a list of tsunamis and seismic seiches for eastern Atlantic south of the Bay of Biscay, in the Bulletin of Seimological Society of America; this compilation starts with the 26 January 1531 event and does not consider any previous tsunami event This list includes, among others, events on 26 December 1746, 28 April 1758 and 4 July 1809. In what concerns the 1 November 1755 tsunami the descriptions are summarized, because it has been the subject of a number of previous works (Solares et al, 1979, 2004; Baptista et al, 1998a, b); a list of tsunami effects is included in the present study, as complementary information to support hazard studies. A similar situation arises in what concerns the 27 December 1722, the 31 March 1761 and the 26 May 1975 events
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