We were woken up in Lagos overnight at about 01:30 by an earthquake of 6.1 magnitude on the Richter scale. The quake was located at a depth of 31 kilometres and about 100km South West of Sagres under the Atlantic.
National press this morning reports no substantial damage, injuries or loss of life anywhere in Portugal. This is probably because of the depth of the even in the earthscrust, The Tremor continued for about 2 minutes, with decreasing instensity and was probably the same in sensed intensity as the one I experience in Lisbon as a child in 1968/69.
Aftershocks have continued through the night in the same regions but with much less intensity ranging between 1.3 and 2.3 on the Richter Scale.
Links here:
http://www.meteo.pt/pt/sismologia/actividade/
http://economico.sapo.pt/noticias/sismo-atinge-portugal_76938.html
We were very lucky that the depth of the event substantially lessened the potential impact of the event. Thanks to the Management upstairs for sparing us!
Right back to work.
NB: 11:21 17/12/2009
Portuguese Met Office server http://www.meteo.pt appears to have crashed owing to overload.
NB: 11:47 17/12/2009
USGS (United States Geological Survey) Data and Report on Quake here:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009qhac.php#details
NB: 12:19 - Earthquake Strongest felt since that of 1969
http://sol.sapo.pt/PaginaInicial/Sociedade/Interior.aspx?content_id=157315
