Europe warned to expect massive earthquake as anniversary nears

EUROPE is due for another huge earthquake like the one which hits Portugal in 1755 killing an estimated 60,000 people, it was revealed today.

New evidence shows that the activity in the Earth’s crust which triggered the Great Lisbon quake is continuing.

But it may be a few hundred years before another disaster happens.

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Research indicates that powerful earthquakes are likely to occur in the region at 1,000 to 2,000-year intervals.

The 1755 earthquake hit Lisbon as worshippers in Portugal and south-western Spain gathered for mass on All Saints’ Day, toppling packed churches.

The earthquake also triggered a tsunami - or giant wave - five to ten metres high. Recent evidence suggests that the quake was triggered by one of the great plates that make up the Earth’s crust sliding under another beneath the Straits of Gibraltar.

Expert Dr Marc-Andre Gutscher, from the European Institute of the Sea in Plouzane, France, said this "subduction" process still appeared to be continuing today.

Writing in the journal Science, he said: "An active subduction zone off southern Iberia poses a long-term seismic risk."

Earthquake experts are planning expeditions to the region as the 250th anniversary of the disaster nears.

Five oceanographic cruises are planned in 2004 and 2005, and three proposals have been submitted for drilling beneath the sea floor.