After the earthquakes and the tsunamis in Haïti, Chili and now in Japan, other countries are also more aware of the risks they have. Also in Spain there have been earthquakes and strikes of tsunamis, indeed not as worse than the three named before but still. Is Spain prepared well in case of an earthquake or tsunami and what could possibly be the effect on the Mediterranean coastline.

In Spain tens of earthquakes take place yearly, most of them in the Andalusia region but also in Murcia, Valencia or the province Girona and the Canarias Islands or the Pyrenees between Navarra and Huesca. Most of them aren’t that strong and don’t come above 4 on the scale of Richter, but experts warn that heavy quakes are certainly no fairytales in Spain. They even warn for a earthquake as strong as the one in 1884 in Arenas del Rey (Granada). There felt 900 casualties and more than 2000 wounded with a quake of 6.7 on the scale of Richter. In 1829 an earthquake of 6.9 on the scale of Richter took place in Torrevieja which caused the dead of 400 people. According to scientists a big earthquake takes place in Spain every 70 years, so it could happen on a short notice now.

Earthquakes mainly happen in Andalusia but the new constructions are better prepared for such quakes. Still, there will always be the danger of an earthquake that strong it causes the buildings to collapse. The damage would be enormous and there could be many casualties looking at the tremendous strength of nature. Besides earthquakes there occur seaquakes on a regular basis that often are the result of a tsunami. Till recent there have been registered 53 ‘maremotos’, like they call seaquakes in Spain, at the Spanish coast.

 
Tsunamis in Spain

Spain has a coastline of 5000 kilometers, so it’s a fact that Spain is vulnerable for a tsunami. Actually, is has happened quit regularly. The last big tsunami happened on November 1st in the year 1755 when 800 kilometers of the coast of Cabo de San Vicente in Andalusia a seaquake took place and caused waves of 6 to 20 meters high hitting the Spanish Portuguese coast. While in Portugal Lissabon and several coastal places were destroyed, the same happened in the South of Spain at the Atlantic coast. Cities like Huelva, Cádiz and smaller fisherman’s villages like Ayamonte, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Chipiona, El Puerto de Santa María en Conil, were flooded and destroyed by the water.

8 years ago, in 2003 the aftershocks of an earthquake in Algeria were noticed in the south of the Baleares where several boats and yachts were being destroyed by big waves. On Menorca, in the harbor of Ciutadella  there regularly occur so called ‘rissagas’, a tsunami like phenomenon with other causes. The rissaga is a phenomenon influenced by the weather and let the water level rise up till 4 meters.

Even when the risk of a tsunami in the Southwest is low, the effect would be devastating according to recent research at the university of Cantabria in Santander. In Spain there’s no emergency scenario to react adequately on such a catastrophe. And with a enormous increase of tourism and constructions it could result in a dreadful scene and all the effects of it.

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