1954 Spain earthquake

Earthquake in Spain Location within Spain Spain 1954-03-29 06:17:07 890481 iscgem890481 29 March 1954 07:17:07 CET 7.8 w y 626.2 km mi 0 on 36.98 N 3.612 W region:ES_type:event inline,title Normal, deep-focus None V, 5http://www.ign.es/web/ign/portal/terremotos-importantes Terremotos más importantes (En España) Instituto Geográfico Nacional Spanish 2018-03-12 None 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.1954 Un fuerte seísmo ha sacudido todo el sur de España https://prensahistorica.mcu.es/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.do?path=683862 El Diário de Avila 31954 Movimiento sísmico en el sur de España https://prensahistorica.mcu.es/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.do?path=2000603525 Imperio 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 per year of fault slip.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 en 42 7 e2022TC007723 10.1029/2022TC007723 2023Tecto..4207723M 10481/84306 free 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.Galindo-Zaldívar J. Gil A. J. Borque M. J. González-Lodeiro F. Jabaloy A. Marín-Lechado C. Ruano P. Sanz de Galdeano C. Active faulting in the internal zones of the central Betic Cordilleras (SE, Spain) Journal of Geodynamics 2003 36 1 239 10.1016/S0264-3707(03)00049-8 2003JGeo...36..239G 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.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. Main active faults in the Granada and Guadix-Baza Basins (Betic Cordillera) Journal of Iberian Geology 7 September 2012 38 1 39215 10.5209/rev_JIGE.2012.v38.n1.39215 2012JIbG...3839215S 10045/35319 free Notable earthquakes struck the Granada Basin such as 1884, 1956, 2010, 2021 and 2026. Wikinews 2010-04-11 Spain hit by 6.3 magnitude earthquake https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Spain_hit_by_6.3_magnitude_earthquake WikinewsMorales 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) https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggaf132 Geophysical Journal International 241 3 1911–1922 10.1093/gji/ggaf132 free 1365-246X 10481/109557 free 2026-08-18 Earthquake rocks Spain's historic Granada, injuring three https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx755dyy1yo 2026-08-20 www.bbc.com en-GB Mainshock The earthquake struck southern Spain with a moment magnitude of 7.8 and depth of 626.2 km at 07:17 CET on 29 March 1954.M 7.8 - Strait of Gibraltar https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/iscgem890481 1954 iscgem890481 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.https://www.ign.es/web/resources/actividades/memoria/Memoria1957.pdf MEMORIA DEL INSTITUTUO GEOGRAFICO Y CATASTRAL 1957 Instituto Geográfico Nacional 1957 575 Spanish MEMORY OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND CADASTRAL INSTITUTE 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.Vázquez Juan Tomás Estrada Ferran Ercilla Gemma Fernández-Salas L. M. Galindo-Zaldívar Jesús Palomino Desirée Alonso Belén Juan Carmen Vegas Ramón Geomorfología y deformaciones cuaternarias en zonas de falla de la plataforma marginal de Motril-Djibouti 137–140 10261/171757 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 2018 978-84-09-02473-5 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.Chung Wai-Ying Kanamori Hiroo Source process and tectonic implications of the Spanish deep-focus earthquake of March 29, 1954 Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors January 1976 13 2 85–96 10.1016/0031-9201(76)90073-X 1976PEPI...13...85C The earthquake was noted for its rarity for being deeper than 500 km. 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.Gutenberg B. Richter C. F. Deep-focus earthquakes in the Mediterranean region Geofisica Pura e Applicata June 1948 12 3–4 130–133 10.1007/BF02332102 1948GeoPA..12..130G 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.An Enigma Deep Beneath Spain https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2010/04/13/an-enigma-deep-beneath-spain.html 2026-08-19 seismo.berkeley.eduHodgson J. H. Cock J. Irma Direction of Faulting in the Deep-Focus Spanish Earthquake of March 29, 1954 Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography 1956 8 3 321–328 10.3402/tellusa.v8i3.9020 1956Tell....8..321H free See also List of earthquakes in Spain Deep-focus earthquake 1956 Atarfe–Albolote earthquake References Category:1954 earthquakes Category:Earthquakes in Spain Category:March 1954 in Europe Category:History of Granada Category:Province of Granada