Vila do Bispo council is to welcome a group of specialists studying the impact of the 1755 tsunami that was triggered by the nation’s largest recorded earthquake.
The 5th International Tsunami Field Symposium 2017 is an international scientific meeting that brings together about 80 researchers and academics involved in Seismology, Seismography, Geology and Geoarcheology.
The 2017 meeting will take place in Lisbon with field trips to two locations in the Vila do Bispo council area at Boca do Rio in Budens, and at Martinhal in Sagres.
The reason for choosing these sites is that they both have physical evidence relating to the 1755 event, evidence which has fascinated scientists for decades.
On the day of the top-level visit, trenches will be opened to show the sedimentary deposits generated by the tsunami of 1755 and scientists will be able to collect samples for study and inclusion in the local museum planned for Vila do Bispo.
The council is well aware that it could be in line for the next big tsunami and can use the data and expert interpretation to shape actions to protect the community in the event of another earthquake and resulting tsunami.
The Department of Geology of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon invited the council to participate in this event. A research paper, “The human occupation in the palaeoestuary of Boca do Rio,” will be presented by researchers João Pedro Bernardes of the University of the Algarve, Felix Teichner of the Philipps-Universität in Marburg and Ricardo Soares, the council archaeologist.
This initiative is all part of the follow-up to a protocol signed in October 2014 between Vila do Bispo council and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
