in flames and a
tsunami overwhelming the ships in the harbor The earthquake struck on the morning of 1 November 1755,
All Saints' Day. Contemporary reports state that the earthquake lasted from three and a half to six minutes, causing fissures wide in the city center. Survivors rushed to the open space of the docks for safety and watched as the sea receded, revealing a plain of mud littered with lost cargo and shipwrecks. Approximately 40 minutes after the earthquake, a
tsunami engulfed the harbor and downtown area, rushing up the
Tagus river "so fast that several people riding on horseback ... were forced to gallop as fast as possible to the upper grounds for fear of being carried away." It was followed by two more waves. Candles lit in homes and churches all around the city for All Saints' Day were knocked over, starting a fire that developed into a
firestorm which burned for hours in the city, asphyxiating people up to from the blaze. depicts the rescue of a three-year-old from under fallen masonry, under the watchful gaze of
Our Lady of the Star Lisbon was not the only
Portuguese city affected by the catastrophe. Throughout the south of the country, in particular the
Algarve, destruction was widespread. The tsunami destroyed some coastal fortresses in the Algarve and, at lower levels, it razed several houses. Almost all the coastal towns and villages of the Algarve were heavily damaged, except
Faro, which was protected by the sandy banks of
Ria Formosa. In
Lagos, the waves reached the top of the city walls. Other towns in different Portuguese regions, such as
Peniche,
Cascais,
Setúbal and even
Covilhã (which is located near the
Serra da Estrela mountain range in central inland Portugal) were visibly affected by the earthquake, the tsunami, or both. The shock waves of the earthquake destroyed part of Covilhã's castle walls and its large towers and damaged several other buildings in
Cova da Beira, as well as in
Salamanca, Spain. In Setúbal, parts of the
Fort of São Filipe de Setúbal were damaged. On the island of
Madeira,
Funchal and many smaller settlements suffered significant damage. Almost all of the ports in the
Azores archipelago suffered most of their destruction from the tsunami, with the sea penetrating about inland. Current and former Portuguese towns in northern Africa were also affected by the earthquake. Places such as
Ceuta (ceded by Portugal to Spain in 1668) and
Mazagon, where the tsunami hit hard the coastal fortifications of both towns, in some cases going over it, and flooding the harbor area, were affected. In Spain, the tsunamis swept the
Andalusian Atlantic Coast, damaging the city of
Cadiz. Shocks from the earthquake were felt throughout Europe as far as
Finland and in North Africa, and according to some sources even in
Greenland and the
Caribbean. Tsunamis as tall as swept along the coast of
North Africa, and struck
Martinique and
Barbados across the Atlantic Ocean. A
tsunami hit
Cornwall on the southern British coast.
Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, was also hit, resulting in partial destruction of the "
Spanish Arch" section of the city wall. In County Clare,
Aughinish Island was created when a low lying connection to the mainland was washed away. At
Kinsale, several vessels were whirled round in the harbor, and water poured into the marketplace. Although seismologists and geologists have always agreed that the epicenter was in the Atlantic to the west of the Iberian Peninsula, its exact location has been a subject of considerable debate. Early hypotheses had proposed the
Gorringe Ridge, about south-west of Lisbon, until
simulations showed that a location closer to the shore of Portugal was required to accord with the observed effects of the tsunami. A 1992 seismic reflection survey of the ocean floor along the
Azores–Gibraltar Transform Fault detected a
thrust fault southwest of
Cape St. Vincent, with a
dip-slip throw of more than . This structure may have created the primary
tectonic event. ==Casualties and damage==