1954 Spain earthquake

1954 Spain earthquake
1954 Spain earthquake is located in Spain
1954 Spain earthquake
Location within Spain
UTC time
  • 1954-03-29 06:17:07
ISC event
USGS-ANSS
Local date
  • 29 March 1954
Local time
Magnitude
Depth
  • 626.2 km (389 mi)
Epicenter36°58′48″N 3°36′43″W / 36.98°N 3.612°W / 36.98; -3.612
TypeNormal, deep-focus
Total damageNone
Max. intensityEMS-98 V (Strong), MMI V (Moderate)[1]
CasualtiesNone

An earthquake struck Granada in southern Spain with a moment magnitude of 7.8 at 07:17:07 local time (06:17:07 UTC) on 29 March 1954. The earthquake had an epicenter in the town of Dúrcal, causing shaking to be felt across Madrid, Tangier, and seismographs detecting the waves in places like Toledo and Stuttgart, West Germany.[2][3] This remains the largest earthquake with epicenter in mainland Spain by magnitude.

Geological background

Dúrcal sits on the Eurasian plate within the Sierra Nevada range on the Betic Cordillera System formed by the stacking of the Eurasian and Iberian plates, The Cordillera foresees about 1.3 ± 0.3 mm (0.051 ± 0.012 in) per year of fault slip.[4] Dúrcal is located geographically on the Granada Basin and Lecrín Valley. Most fault lines within the Granada Basin are normal faulting, such as Padul - Nigüeras fault line, Zafarraya fault line and Sierra Tejeda fault lines.[5]

Dúrcal also sits within Travertine soil, a soft limestone containing freshwater, mainly coming from the Dúrcal river and enriching the soil with freshwater. As a result, amplification can cause weak but long-period ground motion during large earthquakes.[6]

Notable earthquakes struck the Granada Basin such as 1884, 1956, 2010, 2021 and 2026. [7][8][9]

Mainshock

The earthquake struck southern Spain with a moment magnitude of 7.8 and depth of 626.2 km (389.1 mi) at 07:17 CET on 29 March 1954.[10] Shaking was reported across Andalucía (EMS-98 III), Tangier (EMS-98 IV), Taza (IV-V) and other places such as Madrid, Casablanca and Toledo. The earthquake was also registered by the Geophysical Observation of Toledo and in Stuttgart, West Germany.[2][11] According to various news reports, no damage was observed in any town. The National Geographic Institute released a bulletin report in 1957 stating the earthquake struck the Motril fault, a dip-slip normal fault located within the town of Motril.[12] However, a 1976 research journal paper by Wai-Ying Chu and Hiroo Kanamori postulated that the earthquake was a type of slab-tear event involving detachment or breaking of the Alboran lithosphere in the mantle.[13]

The earthquake was noted for its rarity for being deeper than 500 km (310 mi). In 1949, Beno Gutenberg and Charles Richter initially proposed that deep-focus earthquakes mostly occurred in areas such as the Pacific Rim, and the probability one in the Mediterranean is very low.[14] The earthquake's faulting mechanism was determined to be a normal dip-slip due to the vertical compositioning and the horizontal movement due east. During the 2010 Nigüelas earthquake, another deep-focus event, scientists at University of California found it had a nearly identical focal mechanism with the 1954 event.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Instituto Geográfico Nacional. "Terremotos más importantes (En España)" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  2. 1 2 "Un fuerte seísmo ha sacudido todo el sur de España". El Diário de Avila. 1954. p. 3.
  3. ↑ "Movimiento sísmico en el sur de España". Imperio. 1954. p. 3.
  4. ↑ Martin-Rojas, I.; Alfaro, P.; Galindo-Zaldivar, J.; Borque-Arancón, M. J.; García-Tortosa, F. J.; Sanz de Galdeano, C.; Avilés, M.; Sánchez-Alzola, A.; González-Castillo, L.; Ruano, P.; Medina-Cascales, I.; Tendero-Salmerón, V.; Madarieta-Txurruka, A.; Pedrosa-González, M. T.; Gil-Cruz, A. J. (2023). "Insights of Active Extension Within a Collisional Orogen From GNSS (Central Betic Cordillera, S Spain)". Tectonics. 42 (7) e2022TC007723. Bibcode:2023Tecto..4207723M. doi:10.1029/2022TC007723. hdl:10481/84306.
  5. ↑ Galindo-Zaldívar, J.; Gil, A. J.; Borque, M. J.; González-Lodeiro, F.; Jabaloy, A.; Marín-Lechado, C.; Ruano, P.; Sanz de Galdeano, C. (2003). "Active faulting in the internal zones of the central Betic Cordilleras (SE, Spain)". Journal of Geodynamics. 36 (1): 239. Bibcode:2003JGeo...36..239G. doi:10.1016/S0264-3707(03)00049-8.
  6. ↑ Sanz de Galdeano, C.; García-Tortosa, F.J.; Peláez, J.A.; Alfaro, P.; Azañón, J.M.; Galindo-Zaldívar, J.; López Casado, C.; López Garrido, A.C.; Rodríguez-Fernández, J.; Ruano, P. (7 September 2012). "Main active faults in the Granada and Guadix-Baza Basins (Betic Cordillera)". Journal of Iberian Geology. 38 (1) 39215. Bibcode:2012JIbG...3839215S. doi:10.5209/rev_JIGE.2012.v38.n1.39215. hdl:10045/35319.
  7. ↑ "Spain hit by 6.3 magnitude earthquake". Wikinews. 2010-04-11.
  8. ↑ Morales, José; Dengra, Miguel Ángel; López-Comino, José Ángel; López-Abenza, Pedro Jesús; Stich, Daniel; Araque-Pérez, Carlos; Cesca, Simone; Maestre, Jorge (2025-06-01). "Fault identification, complexity and evolution of the 2021, Atarfe-Santa Fe earthquake swarm (Granada basin, Spain)". Geophysical Journal International. 241 (3): 1911–1922. doi:10.1093/gji/ggaf132. hdl:10481/109557. ISSN 1365-246X.
  9. ↑ "Earthquake rocks Spain's historic Granada, injuring three". www.bbc.com. 2026-08-18. Retrieved 2026-08-20.
  10. ↑ ANSS. "M 7.8 - Strait of Gibraltar 1954". Comprehensive Catalog. U.S. Geological Survey.
  11. ↑ MEMORIA DEL INSTITUTUO GEOGRAFICO Y CATASTRAL [MEMORY OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND CADASTRAL INSTITUTE] (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto Geográfico Nacional. 1957. p. 575.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. ↑ Vázquez, Juan Tomás; Estrada, Ferran; Ercilla, Gemma; Fernández-Salas, L. M.; Galindo-Zaldívar, Jesús; Palomino, Desirée; Alonso, Belén; Juan, Carmen; Vegas, Ramón (2018). "Geomorfología y deformaciones cuaternarias en zonas de falla de la plataforma marginal de Motril-Djibouti". Inciativa Ibérica para el Estudio de las Fallas Activas, Tercera Reunión Ibérica sobre Fallas Activas y Paleosismología IBERFAULT 2018 - Third Iberian Meeting on Active Faults and Paleoseismology. pp. 137–140. hdl:10261/171757. ISBN 978-84-09-02473-5.
  13. ↑ Chung, Wai-Ying; Kanamori, Hiroo (January 1976). "Source process and tectonic implications of the Spanish deep-focus earthquake of March 29, 1954". Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 13 (2): 85–96. Bibcode:1976PEPI...13...85C. doi:10.1016/0031-9201(76)90073-X.
  14. ↑ Gutenberg, B.; Richter, C. F. (June 1948). "Deep-focus earthquakes in the Mediterranean region". Geofisica Pura e Applicata. 12 (3–4): 130–133. Bibcode:1948GeoPA..12..130G. doi:10.1007/BF02332102.
  15. ↑ "An Enigma Deep Beneath Spain". seismo.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2026-08-19.
  16. ↑ Hodgson, J. H.; Cock, J. Irma (1956). "Direction of Faulting in the Deep-Focus Spanish Earthquake of March 29, 1954". Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography. 8 (3): 321–328. Bibcode:1956Tell....8..321H. doi:10.3402/tellusa.v8i3.9020.
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