The 1926 Horta earthquake ( pt, Sismo da Horta de 1926/Terramoto da Horta), occurred at 8:42 a.m. (local time) on 31 August. It caused the destruction of many of the buildings located in the city of

Horta Horta may refer to: People * Horta (surname), a list of people Places * Horta, Africa, an ancient city and former bishopric in Africa Proconsularis, now in Tunisia and a Latin Catholic titular see * Horta, Azores, Portugal, a municipality an ...

, the central group of the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

autonomous region of the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

, resulting in the death of nine and the partial or complete destruction of 4,138 buildings.

Earthquake

From April 1926 onwards, the island of Faial was rocked by a series of tremors that increased in intensity, until 5 April. On this date, a singular event resulted in destruction or damage to buildings in the civil parishes of

Flamengos Flamengos is a Portuguese civil parish ( pt, freguesia) on the island of Faial in the archipelago of the Azores. Its name was derived from the grouping of Flemish settlers who made their homes in this landlocked valley, in the municipality of H ...

, Ribeirinha and Conceição, in particular in the localitiesof Farrobo, Lomba and Espalhafatos. On 31 August, at about 8:40 in the morning, the islands were raised by a violent earthquake with its epicentre centralized in the

Faial-Pico Channel The Faial-Pico Channel ( pt, Canal Faial-Pico) is an long channel that separates the islands of Faial Island, Faial and Pico Island, Pico in the central group of the archipelago of the Azores. The strait is divided into various depressions, calder ...

, at a depth of and with a

body wave magnitude Body-waves consist of P-waves that are the first to arrive (see seismogram), or S-waves, or reflections of either. Body-waves travel through rock directly. mB scale The original "body-wave magnitude" – mB or mB (uppercase "B") – was developed ...

of 5.3–5.9. The earthquake progressed to a

Mercalli Intensity The Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM, MMI, or MCS), developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the eff ...

of X (''Extreme'') in the northern part of Horta (around Conceição). The shock resulted in the death of nine people, with 200 injured, and the general destruction of many of the heritage buildings located in that region of the city. The greatest damage occurred in the urban parish of Conceição and rural parishes of

Praia do Almoxarife Praia do Almoxarife is a ''freguesia'' ("civil parish") in the municipality (''concelho'') of Horta, of the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 834, in an area of 9.20 km². Although it was the beachhead of early ...

(where of the 220 homes, only 16 continued to be habitable),

, Feteira and Castelo Branco, in addition to the areas between Lomba do Pilar and

Salão Salão is a ''freguesia'' ("civil parish") in the municipality of Horta on the island of Faial, the Portuguese Azores. The population in 2011 was 401, in an area of 10.40 km². History The settlement of Salão can be traced back to 1620, t ...

. In all, approximately 4,138 homes were partially or totally destroyed.

References

* * * * {{coord, 38.534583, -28.629568, display=title History of the Azores 1926 in Portugal Earthquakes in Portugal 1926 earthquakes

Earthquake

See also

References