Lisbon Earthquake

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Sites of memory · Year: 1755

The Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755 has been the most significant natural disaster suffered by Europe in historical times. It caused thousands of victims in Portugal, Spain, and North Africa, along with considerable economic damage. The Portuguese capital was almost wiped off the map both by the tremor and the subsequent tsunami. The epicentre of the earthquake was located on the seabed just over 200 kilometres southwest of Cape St. Vincent, where the Eurasian and African tectonic plates collided. The resulting tsunami fully affected the Atlantic coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, part of the western Mediterranean, the Azores, Madeira, and there are even references that it was felt in Brazil and the Antilles. 

We have scant news about what happened in the Canary Islands as a consequence of this event. It seems evident that something must have occurred due to the proximity of the islands to the earthquake’s location, but what little we know is that, fortunately, it was not too serious. 

According to a brief report signed by the then Captain General of the Canary Islands Juan de Urbina, sent to the Minister of State Ricardo Wall, reporting what happened, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife “… On the said day, around eleven in the morning, with the sea calm, the steps of the pier rose, but this rise was not so great as to be noticeable to all, nor did it cause any other effect in this port and its coasts than to astonish the few who noticed this novelty ”.

Thus, the town of Santa Cruz did not suffer serious consequences either human or material, only the furious onslaught of a large wave that exceeded the height of the newly built pier breakwater, leaving astonished, it seems, the few who realised what was happening.

In the rest of the Canary Islands the consequences were also very mild, with no personal damage and only some material damage on the low coasts facing north.

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