Abstract
The historical accounts of the 1755 earthquake and tsunami in Lisbon are quite vast providing a general overview of the disaster in the city. However, the details remain unknown. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand and reconstruct the impact of the 1755 event (earthquake, tsunami, and fire) in downtown Lisbon. Thus, the historical data has been compiled and analyzed, to complement tsunami modeling and a field survey. Although census data are not very accurate, before the disaster there were about 5500 buildings and about 26,200 residents in downtown Lisbon; after the disaster, no records of the buildings were found and there were about 6000–8800 residents. There were about 1000 deaths in the study area. The results also show that the earthquake did not cause significant damage to most of the study area, which contradicts general knowledge. After the earthquake, a fire started that quickly spread throughout the city causing most damage to property. The tsunami hit mostly the west and central parts of the study area. The numerical model results show the tsunami hit the studied area about 60 min after the earthquake, inundating the seafront streets and squares up to 200 m inland. In addition, two major waves were calculated, which are in agreement with the historical accounts.
Highlights
The 1 November 1755 earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit the entire Portuguese coastline
There are discrepancies between the layout of the city and the civil parishes’ limits, the compilation presented in Figure 9 may be the best representation of the study area before the earthquake
This research showed that the coastline of downtown Lisbon has changed significantly since the earthquake, increasing the available land area by 50 m to about 300 m
Summary
The 1 November 1755 earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit the entire Portuguese coastline. According to the historical records previously analyzed [1] in Lisbon municipality, the combined effects of the earthquake, tsunami, and fire caused significant damage to the city’s buildings. The administrative limits of Lisbon municipality have been changing over time, which has been one of the limitations in the interpretation of this historical event in the city. The 18th century census data show that before the earthquake Lisbon city had 109,754–157,192 residents (older than 7 years). The fatalities due to the 1755 disaster correspond to 6.4%–9.1% of the Lisbon city resident population [1]. The historical accounts are quite vast providing a general overview of the disaster in the Lisbon municipality, details remain unknown, especially in the downtown area.
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