LISBON, Feb 19 (Reuters) – An earthquake of magnitude 4.1 struck near Portugal’s capital Lisbon on Thursday, but did not appear to cause any injuries or significant damage, the country’s Institute of Sea and Atmosphere said.
The southern Lisbon region and the Azores archipelago lie in a seismically active zone marking the boundary between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates, though seismic activity has been relatively low recently.
IPMA said the earthquake “according to the information available so far, did not cause any personal or material damage”.
In an earlier statement, just after the quake shortly after noon local time, the IPMA said its epicentre was located near the town of Alenquer, about 45 km (28 miles) north of Lisbon and occurred at a depth of 15 km.
In August 2025, a quake with a magnitude of 5.3 rocked the Lisbon area, although its epicentre was offshore in the Atlantic. It was the strongest since 1969, when a 7.9-magnitude quake killed at least 13 people and injured dozens.
The Portuguese capital was devastated by a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 1755, one of the deadliest seismic events in European history that is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 40,000 people.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Writing by David Latona; Editing by Emma Pinedo, Alex Richardson and Barbara Lewis)
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