The great historical 1755 earthquake. Effects and damage in Spain

The access to the complete reports sent in answer of a Royal enquire relative to the 1755 earthquake (Archivo Historico Nacional, 1756) provided us with information more comprehensive than that included in the analysis of such documents prepared by the Spanish Royal Academy of History in 1756 (Real Academia de la Historia, 1756). With such data, we have made a new study of the shock centred mainly in the following points: number of victims, source parameters (including moment magnitude and epicentral location), intensity map and seismogeological effects compared with those expected from the EMS-98. Relevant results from this analysis are: a new intensity attenuation law for earthquakes from the region of the 1755 shocks and first approximation damage probability matrices for buildings of the types common in the XVII to XIX centuries affected by large, distant earthquakes.