More than 1,000 Small Earthquakes Shook Portugal’s Volcanic Island of Madeira

In less than 48 hours, a series of 1,100 tiny earthquakes jolted one of Portugal’s mid-Atlantic volcanic islands, leading officials to trigger an emergency plan while specialists assessed what they called a “seismic catastrophe.”

According to Rui Marques, head of the Azores archipelago’s seismo-volcanic surveillance facility CIVISA, earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 1.9 to 3.3 have been registered on the island of Sao Jorge since Saturday afternoon.

He stated that the majority of the earthquakes, which have so far caused little damage, had occurred near the island’s volcanic fissure of Manadas, which last erupted in 1808.

Sao Jorge, one of the nine islands that comprise the Azores, is home to around 8,400 inhabitants and is part of the archipelago’s middle group, which also contains the renowned volcanic tourist sites of Faial and Pico.

The mayor of Velas, where majority of Sao Jorge’s population resides, Luis Silveira, described it as a precautionary action when he signed a paper on Monday to activate an emergency plan due to the earthquakes.