On November 1, 1755, a massive earthquake took place on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Lisbon, Portugal. The destruction in Portugal led to one of the first coordinated government responses to a natural disaster.

Research:

• Algarve History Association. “The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and the Algarve.” https://www.algarvehistoryassociation.com/en/portuguese-history/algarve-history/194-the-1755-lisbon-earthquake-and-the-algarve
• Blanc, P.-L.: Earthquakes and tsunami in November 1755 in Morocco: a different reading of contemporaneous documentary sources, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 9, 725–738, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-9-725-2009, 2009.
• Borlase, William. “The Natural History of Cornwall.” Oxford : printed for the author; by W. Jackson: sold by W. Sandby, London; and the booksellers of Oxford. 1758.
• Cavendish, Richard. “Pombal and the Inquisition in Portugal.” History Today. 5/5/2001. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/pombal-and-inquisition-portugal
• Dynes, Russell R. “The Lisbon Earthquake in 1755: The First Modern Disaster.” University of Delaware Disaster Research Center. Preliminary Paper #333.
• Joel, Lucas. “November 1, 1755: Earthquake Destroys Lisbon.” EARTH. November/December 2015.
• Lai, Dria. “The Great Lisbon Earthquake: A Journey through the First Modern Disaster.” https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e30a2ea6401e4f2e8805dfbcfa604dc5
• Lisbon Earthquake Museum. “Inquérito.” https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/blog/inquerito
• Lisbon Earthquake Museum. “Providências.” https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/blog/providencias
• Martínez-Loriente, S., Sallarès, V. & Gràcia, E. The Horseshoe Abyssal plain Thrust could be the source of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami. Commun Earth Environ 2, 145 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00216-5
• Mascarenhas, J., Belgas, L., Branco, F.G., Vieira, E. (2024). The Pombaline Cage (“Gaiola Pombalina”): An European Anti-seismic System Based on Enlightenment Era of Experimentation. In: Endo, Y., Hanazato, T. (eds) Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. SAHC 2023. RILEM Bookseries, vol 47. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39603-8_5
• Molesky, Mark. “The Vicar and the Earthquake: Conflict, Controversy, and a Christening during the Great Lisbon Disaster of 1755.” e-JPH, Vol. 10, number 2, Winter 2012.
• Penwith Local History Group. “The Mounts Bay Tsunami.” https://www.penwithlocalhistorygroup.co.uk/on-this-day/?id=269

Pereira, Alvaro S. “The Opportunity of a Disaster: The Economic Impact of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake.” The Journal of Economic History , Jun. 2009. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40263964