A seismogram is in the headlines this Tuesday, August 27th Publicwhich is titled: “Earthquake warns of risks”The Portuguese newspaper devotes the first pages of its edition, like its competitors, to the 5.3 magnitude earthquake that occurred the day before at 5:11 a.m. and whose epicentre was located at sea, 60 kilometres off the port city of Sines, in Alentejo.
The earthquake caused no casualties or damage – it just caused a big fright for a good part of the Portuguese at dawn. They did not receive any warning from the authorities, notes Public, which points out the flaws, particularly in the communication surrounding this event. The website of the Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), the reference in Portugal, crashed very quickly after the earthquake.
Modification of the earth’s crust
The other concern highlighted on the front page of the newspaper is the lack of preparedness of a city like Lisbon for earthquakes, despite being located like the rest of the country in a high-risk zone. Tuesday’s earthquake was not “not a test, but a serious warning”, lance Public in his editorial:
“In the Lisbon metropolitan area alone, two thirds of the buildings where we live, where we work, where we receive the most diverse services, were built before the existence of effective legislation on seismic protection [dans les années 1980]. Lisbon City Council has announced that it is proceeding with ‘Seismic assessment of more than 1,500 municipal buildings’ and that 10% of them needed to be ‘reinforced’ against earthquakes. Many other buildings will also need to be assessed.”
The local population fears a repeat of the great earthquake (followed by a tsunami and a fire) that devastated the capital in 1755. Thirteen people also died in the one that occurred in 1969, measuring 8 on the Richter scale. Yesterday’s earthquake could cause others, as seismologist Susana Custódio points out in the article:
“Earthquakes change the stress state of the Earth’s crust in this region, which sometimes triggers other processes and can lead to larger earthquakes.”
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