Laurence Dollimore
AN earthquake that rattled Tenerife on Sunday was felt in at least 10 different towns on the island.
According to the National Geographic Institute (IGN), the quake was detected at round 3.04pm.
Its epicentre was around 21km below ground on the northern tip of the island and measured 3.3 on the Richter scale.
The earthquake was most strongly felt in areas of Puerto de la Cruz, including El Durazno, San Fernando, El Tope, Taoro-Malpais and Las Arenas – as well as up to 14 other towns and villages.
Locals reported feeling the tremors on the IGN’s website (www.ign.es), which has set up a citizens’ portal for reporting and commenting on quakes and other weather phenomenon following the underwater volcanic eruption of El Hierro 10 years ago.
Speaking on this weekend’s quake, one local said: “It was a strange sensation, as if a large truck was passing by.”
Another told local newspaper Diario de Avisos: “What I felt was something strange, I thought at first that it could be a large truck or something passing by on the Eastern Highway.”
It comes after experts last month warned authorities on the mainland to better prepare themselves for a potentially devastating earthquake.
According to experts, there is a risk that the infamous quake of 1755, which measured up to nine on the Richter scale, could soon repeat itself.
The Great Lisbon Earthquake, as it was called, killed up to 60,000 people in Portugal, Spain and Morocco, triggering a 15-metre-high tsunami (pictured in artist’s sketch above) that destroyed the Portuguese capital and engulfed parts of Cadiz and Huelva.
Now, seismologists are calling on Portugal to reinforce buildings so that the next time a mega quake strikes, it is not as deadly.
They include Mario Lopes, professor at the Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) and doctor in Seismic Engineering at the Imperial College London.
They want the Portuguese Government to urgently plan for the seismic reinforcement of social buildings and facilities that accommodate babies and children.
According to a study quoted by Informacion, in Greater Lisbon, some 600,000 people live in buildings that are not prepared to withstand violent earthquakes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of nurseries and kindergartens are located in old residential buildings, which will collapse or suffer serious damage when a major earthquake occurs again, they warned in a report
“There is an urgent need for a national programme to reinforce nurseries and schools,” said Lopes.
They warned how most schools are vulnerable to severe earthquakes as many of them are located in areas that will be swallowed by a tsunami that would follow a major earthquake with an epicenter at sea.
Lisbon’s two central hospitals, Santa Maria and São Jose, are said to be among the most vulnerable.
In 1755, a quake estimated to have measured between 8.5 and 9 on the Richter scale struck the Iberian Peninsula.
Under the Straits of Gibraltar there is a unique subduction zone, a zone in which which one tectonic plate moves beneath another with the potential to cause powerful earthquakes.
Although debate still rages among seismologists, it is believed that it was a subduction zone beneath the Gulf of Cadiz and Gibraltar which caused Europe’s deadliest earthquake.
