An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.4 on the Richter scale shuddered across the mid-western Algarve this morning causing the evacuation of an elementary school in Silves.
The Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere reported that the earthquake was recorded at 09:39 hrs with an epicenter about five kilometres west-northwest of the city of Silves.
According to the emergency authorities in Faro there had been no personal injuries of damage to property caused by the quake which was felt across the municipalities of Albufeira, Lagoa, Lagos, Monchique and Portimão.
Around 200 pupils from the Dr. Garcia Domingues elementary school in Silves were evacuated following the earthquake with the head commenting that "It was a big scare when the windows and doors began to shake violently but there was no damage caused and the students were evacuated as per the emergency plan."
Silves council confirmed that the school had been evacuated and that classes resumed without anyone having been hurt, nor as there damage to the school.
Damage to buildings is highly likely with an earthquake intensity of 4.5 or more on the Richter scale. The main and current threat to the Algarve is from unfettered drilling for oil and gas on and offshore which will increase the number and intensity of earth-tremors. This in turn could result in high intensity earthquakes.
The Algarve is woefully unprepared for a big earthquake with most of its buildings constructed as if an earthquake of a significant size will never happen again.
There now are proven direct links between drilling for oil and gas and earthquakes. In the Algarve, private economic interests have been favoured over the safety of local populations and infrastructure.
Portugal’s 1755 earthquake, 8.5 on the Richter scale, killed an estimated 100,000 people with the greatest destruction in the Algarve where the subsequent tsunami flattened some coastal fortresses and razed houses build on low lying ground.
In some places the waves crested at more than 30 metres and almost all the coastal towns and villages of the Algarve were heavily damaged with significant loss of life, except for those in Faro which was protected by the sand banks or the western Ria Formosa lagoon.
In Lagos, the waves reached the top of the city walls. For the coastal regions, the destructive effects of the tsunami were more disastrous than those of the earthquake.
Anything that can be done not to trigger a seismic event in such a sensitive geological area should be a good thing but the government’s current obsession with get rich quick schemes involving oil companies ignores the laws of cause and effect.
See also: 'Oil and gas drilling and earthquake risks for the Algarve.' ASMAA
http://asmaa-algarve.org/index.php/en/campaigns/oil-and-gas-in-the-algarve/campaign-articles/oil-and-gas-drilling-and-earthquake-risks-for-the-algarve
