Several of the highest mountains in
Portugal were violently shaken, and rent at their summits; huge masses
falling from them into the neighboring valleys. These great fractures
gave rise to immense volumes of dust, which at a distance were mistaken
for smoke by those who beheld them. Flames were also said to have been
observed: but if there were any such, they were probably electrical
flashes produced by the sudden rupture of the rocks.
The portion of the earth's surface convulsed by this earthquake is
estimated by Humboldt to have been four times greater than the whole
extent of Europe. The shocks were felt not only over the Spanish
peninsula, but in Morocco and Algeria they were nearly as violent. At a
place about twenty-four miles from the city of Morocco, there is said
to have occurred a catastrophe much resembling what took place at the
Lisbon mole. A great fissure opened in the earth, and an entire village,
with all its inhabitants, upwards of 8,000 in number, were precipitated
into the gulf, which immediately closed over its prey.
EARTHQUAKES IN CALABRIA
Of the numerous other examples of destructive earthquakes which might
be chosen from Old World annals, it will not be amiss to append a brief
account of those which took place in Calabria, Italy, in 1783. These,
while less wide-spread in their influence, were much longer in duration
than the Lisbon cataclysm, since they continued, at intervals, from the
5th of February until the end of the year.
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