page_title: 1522 Vila Franca earthquake
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: 1522 Vila Franca earthquake / History
caption_attribution_description: &#160;Portugal, aerial views of the Azores
context_page_description: The 1522 Vila Franca earthquake, also known as the 1522 Vila Franca landslide refers to the earthquake and landslides that occurred on October 21–22, 1522, in the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo. Vila Franco do Campo was then the provincial capital and is located on São Miguel Island in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.
  The epicenter of the earthquake was situated several kilometers north-northwest of Vila Franca and contained a maximum intensity of X on the European macroseismic scale. They caused landslides and lahars that moved 6,750,000 cubic metres of material down the surrounding slopes, destroying buildings. The movement of debris into the settlement caused the deaths of 3,000 to 5,000 people. In addition to the destruction of Vila Franca, the earthquake affected the neighboring settlements of Ponta Garça, Maia and Porto Formoso where thousands died as well. A tsunami formed by the lahar destroyed several boats that were located near the islet of Vila Franca and the deaths of almost a hundred people. Gaspar Frutuoso, writing 70 years following the destruction, provided a complete record of these events, called "Romance de Vila Franca."
context_section_description: Between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, the settlement of Vila Franca do Campo was the provincial capital of the island of São Miguel. The town was granted the status of a municipality in 1472. The principal civil and religious institutions and the residence were located there, as well as the residence of the Donatary-Captain, whose family (the Gonçalves da Câmara clan) were the most powerful on the island. They would later receive the title of Counts of Vila Franca. The presence of the main customshouse and relative shelter of the villages' islet made Vila Franca the primary port of entry to the island.
  Vila Franca do Campo had never suffered an attack or natural disaster. By 1522, it was a prosperous and developing center with over 5,000 inhabitants, making up approximately 25 percent of the island's population. Most of the population settled along the coast where the mouths of the ravines of Ribeira da Mãe de Água and Ribeira Seca provided drinkable water. The interior, which extended into the Água de Pau Massif), was less populated, especially near the Rabaçal and Louriçal hilltops that were separated by the Ribeira da Mãe de Água valley. About 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the village was the islet of Vila Franca, which was a navigating landmark and provided some shelter from southern squalls.
  Due to the lack of contemporary building materials, most of the buildings in the village were constructed from loose masonry stone and filled with gravel or stone. Only the homes of the landed gentry and the principal facades of the better properties were plastered with clay. The low quality of the clay on the island meant that these too were weak and easily crumpled. The difficulty of producing tile locally meant the richer nobles and religious buildings were covered in tile, while poorer homes were framed in culm and covered with hay or straw. The elevated hardness of the basalt stone made working the material difficult, creating rounded surfaces that were fragile to masonry. These factors, combined with the elevated weight of the walls, resulted in constructions that were vulnerable to seismic activity.
  According to the Romance de Vila Franca, on the night of 21 October 1522:
  ...//Quarter of the moon was ///It was a Wednesday //Wednesday sad day //And in a night more serene //The heaven could do did //That that could run lifted //Nothing that he felt //No breadth of wind //Nor tree leaf waved //Starring night was the heaven //Clouds did not darken
  The calm did not last; around two in the morning, local time, as related in the Saudades da Terra (authored by Gaspar Frutuoso):
  ...with a starry night and clear, without a cloud in the sky, there was heard in all the island a grandioso and spontaneous tremor of the earth, that lasted for the space of creed, that appeared that the elements, fire, air and water, fought at the centre, making them great concussions, with snorting and horrendous movements, like raging sea waves, appearing to all inhabitants of the island that turned to center, as if the sky was falling. And finishing in the space of the Creed or Our Father and Ave Maria all or more, it began again to shake softly as much.
  Aftershocks continued until midday on 22 October.
  The epicenter of the earthquake is estimated to have been some kilometers north-northwest of the town, in the area of Monte Escuro. It culminated in a scale X event. Landslides followed throughout the island. It is likely that they were affected by the saturation of the sub-soil from by torrential rainfall several days earlier. The island's volcanic terrain, consisting of low-density pyroclastic materials (such as the pumice stones that comprised the flanks of the Água do Pau Massif), was susceptible to landslides, and eventually resulted in the creation of lahars. Similar conditions on the northeast coast of Faialense Caldera occurred during the July 1998 earthquake.
  Gaspar Frutuoso continued, noting how the great landslides were terrifying:
  ...there was no grotto, from the south to the northeast, that did not run with ravines of 
caption: A view of the Água do Pau Massif overlooking the modern town of Vila Franca do Campo
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