Timeline of Natural Disasters in The Azores - 20th Century

20th Century

• 1907 — An underwater eruption at the Mónaco Fracture. On 1 April founded a small eruption at a radius of 400 m at the depths of Banco Mónaco SSW of S. Miguel. It spewed out ashes from the submerged cape São Miguel - Faial
• 1911 — Underwater eruption in the Mónaco Fracture, in March, it caused a minor eruption located about 200 to 300 m in depth SSW in 1907, the eruption lasted several hours.
• 1926 — A major earthquake rumbled the city of Horta, in early-April, the island saw series of intensive earthquakes. On April 5 damage was reported in Flamengos, Ribeirinha and Conceição. On August 31 at 8:42 (Oscar Time) causing 8 deaths ruining the cities of Horta again and parishes of Conceição, Praia do Almoxarife (ruining 220 homes), Flamengos, Feteira and Castelo Branco and most of Lomba do Pilar e o Salão. 4,138 homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed
• 1957 - 1958 — Eruption at Capelinhos, Faial between September 16 and 27, 1957 and ending October 25, 1958, ruined buildings and extended the land by an underwater eruption 1 km from Ponta dos Capelinhos. Many people emigrated to North America.
• 1963 — An earthquake and an underwater eruption affected Santa Luzia in Pico from December 12 to 15. It made seismographs from Faial registered a volcanic tremor at Cachorro, Santa Luzia on the north coast of the island of Pico. The tremor lasted from December 13 to 14. On December 15, with great weather and a good visibility, residents of Faial and Pico saw "balls of clouds of vapor" leaving from the front of Cachorro. None of these materials were collected and the phenomenon was not did not shook heavily and did not caused any damage.
• 1964 — An earthquake shook the island of São Jorge in the area of Rosais and Velas, damaging 900 homes and 400 buildings, as well as causing panic on the island, leading to the evacuation of large numbers of Jorgenses to the island of Terceira and other islands. The crisis was caused by an underwater deep eruption off the coast of Rosais.
• 1973 — Earthquake shook the islands of Pico and Faial, in the portion of October 11, residents felt numerous aftershocks on Pico, Faial and São Jorge with particular prominence over the parish of São Mateus and the locality of Terra do Pão, and Pico island. On November 23 at 12:36 p.m. OST (2:36 p.m. GMT), measured a violent earthquake (at 7/8 on the Wood-Neumann scale) with the epicenter near Santo Antonio on Pico. The earthquake caused major damage, with many houses damaged, fallen walls and displaced streets and roads, the parishes of Bandeiras Santa Luzia, Santo Antóónio and São Roque in the north coast of Pico and São Mateus in the south coast and damaged the parishes of Conceição, Matriz and Flamengos in the island of Faial
• 1980 - The 1980 Azores Islands earthquake on January 1 devastated Terceira São Jorge and Graciosa islands happened at 4:42 p.m. OST (6:42 p.m. GMT) measuring 7 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter was located nearly 35 km SSW of Angra do Heroísmo. It caused damage to buildings in the city of Angra do Heroísmo. town of São Sebastião and the parishes of W and NW Terceira and including Topo and Santo Antão, in São Jorge devastated Carapacho and Luz in Graciosa. The earthquake was one of the greatest recorded earthquakes in the Azores Islands. 71 people lost their lives, 400 were injured, nearly 15,500 homes were destroyed and 15,000 (about 5% of the Azorians) were homeless.
• 1981 — An underwater eruption in Fractura Mónaco, in the beginning of July, a small underwater eruption about 300 m in depth was located in Banco Mónaco (SSW of São Miguel), it spewed gases and basaltic materials.
• 1997 — An underwater eruption near Banco D. João de Castro -In the spring of 1997, the intense microseismic activity rumbled throughout that area and caused numerous earthquakes and aftershocks (I to III on the Mercali scale felt in Terceira and São Miguel islands lifted and created an underwater eruption.
• 1997 — Mudslide in Ribeira Quente, São Miguel, on October 31, 1997 after one week of intense slides, it created for early two hours of heavy precipitation on October 31 and created a mudslide over the hillsides of Outeiro das Freiras and left 36 families totaling 114 persons homeless.
• 1998 — The 1998 Azores earthquake on July 9 shook Faial, Pico and São Jorge at 5:19 a.m. ODT (6:19 a.m. GMT) measured 5.6 on the Richter scale with and epicenter NNE of the island of Faial caused damage to the parishes of Riberinha, Pedro Miguel, Salão and Cedros and more damage in Castelo Branco (mainly Lombega), Flamengos and Praia do Almoxarife on Faial, it also caused damage in parts of Pico Island and the far western part of the São Jorge Island. 8 persons lost their lives in the earthquake, 1,700 persons were homelesses.
• 1999 — 2000 - An underwater eruption shook Serreta on Terceira registering aftershocks in the area on November 25, 1998. Fishermen founded another eruption at the end of December.