The hamlet of Vidigal, in the countryside between Portimão and Monchique, was the epicentre yesterday evening of a 3.6 magnitude earthquake, which caused hundreds of people to call into emergency services.
“It was as quick as it was intense”, one Praia da Rocha towerblock resident told tabloid Correio da Manhã, giving an almost ‘textbook’ account of habitual Algarve earth tremors.
“It felt like a wave under our feet, with the noise of thunder coming up from inside the ground. I thought the earth was going to open”.
The tremor was felt in boroughs the length and breadth of the Algarve, and even in parts of the Alentejo, Portimão’s Civil Protection commander Richard Marques told CM.
But the ‘bottom line’ was that there has been no damage recorded, and no injuries.
It was just another ‘scare’ of the type that the Algarve has become used to.
Says CM, the epicentre in the area of Vidigal was 20 kms below the earth’s surface.
For a full picture of the seismic activity in this corner of Portugal, click on IPMA’s website: ipma.pt
Yesterday’s onshore quake came on the same day as a lesser offshore quake further west close to the East Azores fracture zone and has been followed by a tremor in Spain.
All the quakes are on a easily discernable fault line.
