The earthquake that was felt at dawn last Monday was the tenth largest that has been felt in Portugal since the 16th century. The earthquake will be the subject of several studies.
Lisbon woke up startled in the early hours of last Monday by a earthquake5.3 degrees on the Richter scale. There were no injuries or material damage, but everything could have been different if the earthquake had been more intense.
“The energy released by this event is very small compared to the energy released by a large event that could affect Lisboa“explains Jorge Cruz, seismologist at the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA).
The earthquake, with its epicenter about 60 kilometers west of Sines, It was the tenth largest in Portugal since the 16th century and must be studied to understand future seismic events.
“Let’s study the origin of the earthquakethe mechanism that caused it, how it was felt throughout the continent, will be subject of several studies“says Jorge Cruz.
According to the IPMA, at the “accelerometric station closest to the epicenter of the August 26 earthquake, the highest values of ground motion acceleration ever recorded with modern instrumentation in mainland Portugal were measured.”
Since 5:47 a.m. on Monday there have been nine replicas of small magnitude, the most recent at 00:14 and 00:30 on Tuesday. The Government considered this earthquake as a test of responsiveness from the country’s authorities, but experts see it as a serious warning, given the population density of the Portuguese capital and the lack of anti-seismic protection in the city’s buildings.
Around 30,000 residential buildings Lisboa They are not resistant to earthquakes, since they were built before 1960, two years before the first anti-seismic legislation came into force in Portugal. This means that the 60% of the municipality’s homes are not prepared to resist earthquakes.
The first regulations were approved in 1958, and the legislation was updated later, in 1983. But it was not until 1990 when it was really applied. The Lisbon City Council also announced on Monday that it will launch this week a app that will allow citizens to obtain information about seismic risk of the buildings in which they live.
“We have to realize that buildings need to be improved. We have to do something with the buildings and that is why this earthquake is a warning,” warns the seismologist. Earthquakes cannot be predicted, but there is one certainty: the earth will shake again and the country must prepare to mitigate a possible catastrophe.
