When Geology Encounters a Real Catastrophe
43
felt in northern Europe, northern Italy, Catalonia, the south of France,
Switzerland, Bohemia, the Azores, along the coast of Brazil, in the
West Indies, from Iceland to Morocco, and from the German provinces to Boston, America.
17 In the months following the earthquake,
the exceptional number of shocks allow us to speak of the “crise séismique de 1755-1762 en Europe du Nord-Ouest”.
18 France was hit by
at least forty-four earthquakes between 1 November 1755 and the end
of 1756, and by eighty-seven in total up to 1762. All the inhabitants of
northern Europe at one time or another felt the earth shake in the
months following the Lisbon earthquake. A single German source
from the Eifel region counted eighty-eight tremors between December
1755 and March 1757. The rector of the Jesuit college at Brigue recorded 135 tremors from 9 December 1755 to 26 February 1756, leaving only twenty-six days free of seismic activity out of a total of
eighty, with 9 December 1755 proving the most active, punctuated by
a tremor almost every half-hour.
19
All the stories, public or private, emphasize the exceptional
scale and frequency of the tremors through 1755 and 1756, thereby
linking them to the events in Portugal. A good number of French
priests note in the parish registers the coincidence of an earth tremor
felt in their village with the shock visited on Lisbon.
20 These, then, are
Europe-wide events which galvanize into action the scholars of the
Académie des sciences in Paris, although it is no longer solely about
Lisbon. Only two of the ninety-two papers on earthquakes presented
in the Académie between November 1755 and the end of 1756 relate
___________________________
17 Académie royale des Sciences, Registre des Procès-verbaux des séances, 31 janvier
1756, vol. 75, fol. 55.
18 Pierre Alexandre et Jean Vogt, “La crise séismique de 1755-1762 en Europe du
Nord-ouest. Les secousses des 26 et 27.12.1755: recensement des matériaux”, in
Materials of the CEC project “Review of Historical Seismicity in Europe”, ed. Paola
Albini et Andrea Moroni (Milan: 1994), vol. 2, pp. 37-76.
19 Alexandre and Vogt, “La crise séismique”, p. 37; Frédéric Montandon, “Les
séismes de forte intensité en Suisse”, Revue pour l’étude des calamités (1942-1943),
5-6, pp. 9-10.
20 See for example the Loire-Atlantique, archives communales de Soudan, registre
paroissial manuscrit (1755); Loire-Atlantique, archives communales de Saint Sulpice
d’Auvergné, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755); Haute-Savoie, archives communales
de Cernex, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755); Oise, archives communales de
Hedencourt, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755).
43
felt in northern Europe, northern Italy, Catalonia, the south of France,
Switzerland, Bohemia, the Azores, along the coast of Brazil, in the
West Indies, from Iceland to Morocco, and from the German provinces to Boston, America.
17 In the months following the earthquake,
the exceptional number of shocks allow us to speak of the “crise séismique de 1755-1762 en Europe du Nord-Ouest”.
18 France was hit by
at least forty-four earthquakes between 1 November 1755 and the end
of 1756, and by eighty-seven in total up to 1762. All the inhabitants of
northern Europe at one time or another felt the earth shake in the
months following the Lisbon earthquake. A single German source
from the Eifel region counted eighty-eight tremors between December
1755 and March 1757. The rector of the Jesuit college at Brigue recorded 135 tremors from 9 December 1755 to 26 February 1756, leaving only twenty-six days free of seismic activity out of a total of
eighty, with 9 December 1755 proving the most active, punctuated by
a tremor almost every half-hour.
19
All the stories, public or private, emphasize the exceptional
scale and frequency of the tremors through 1755 and 1756, thereby
linking them to the events in Portugal. A good number of French
priests note in the parish registers the coincidence of an earth tremor
felt in their village with the shock visited on Lisbon.
20 These, then, are
Europe-wide events which galvanize into action the scholars of the
Académie des sciences in Paris, although it is no longer solely about
Lisbon. Only two of the ninety-two papers on earthquakes presented
in the Académie between November 1755 and the end of 1756 relate
___________________________
17 Académie royale des Sciences, Registre des Procès-verbaux des séances, 31 janvier
1756, vol. 75, fol. 55.
18 Pierre Alexandre et Jean Vogt, “La crise séismique de 1755-1762 en Europe du
Nord-ouest. Les secousses des 26 et 27.12.1755: recensement des matériaux”, in
Materials of the CEC project “Review of Historical Seismicity in Europe”, ed. Paola
Albini et Andrea Moroni (Milan: 1994), vol. 2, pp. 37-76.
19 Alexandre and Vogt, “La crise séismique”, p. 37; Frédéric Montandon, “Les
séismes de forte intensité en Suisse”, Revue pour l’étude des calamités (1942-1943),
5-6, pp. 9-10.
20 See for example the Loire-Atlantique, archives communales de Soudan, registre
paroissial manuscrit (1755); Loire-Atlantique, archives communales de Saint Sulpice
d’Auvergné, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755); Haute-Savoie, archives communales
de Cernex, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755); Oise, archives communales de
Hedencourt, registre paroissial manuscrit (1755).