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The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake

It came on a holy morning, toppled a capital, then drowned the survivors who fled to the waterfront. It shook the philosophy of Enlightenment Europe as hard as its ground.

Epicenter

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Magnitude
M7.7
estimated magnitude
When
1755
November 1, 1755
Depth
unknown
Deaths
~50,000
estimated toll

What happened

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake struck on November 1, 1755, registering magnitude 7.7 (estimated magnitude). Each whole step on the moment-magnitude scale is roughly 32 times more energy, so this released on the order of 355× the energy of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake.

Its epicenter was located near 36.00°N, 11.00°W, at a depth of about unknown — . Deep earthquakes are felt across a wide region but are usually less destructive at the surface than shallow ones of the same size.

An estimated 50,000 people were killed.

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