[Gosxjqum]

This should become a STICKY, and filed away for reference. Some really good information.
Now, that said, let's do some "adjusting"

Un hecho crucial para el surgimiento de Brasil como estado nación fue el traslado, a raíz de las Guerras Napoleónicas, de la capital desde Lisboa a Río de Janeiro implicándose con ello la asignación de la categoría de reino al Brasil, un reino dentro del Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil y Algarve (1807 – 1821), al disolverse pacíficamente tal reino surgió el Imperio de Brasil.

What this says is that the capital of Portugal was NOT moved to Brazil as a result of the 1755 earthquake, bur rather as a result of the Napoleonic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

Please try to get a grip on tectonics. the Caribbean Plate is between the N.American Plate and the S. American Plate and is pushing against the Cocos Plate to the west.

There are probably three different types of friction going on: subduction, and lateral are the two most important ones for us. The fault lines to the north seem to be lateral movements, those to the south and west subduction.

Big deal.

Now, according to Orlando Franco, a civil engineer and geologist, a "big" one did hit perhaps 800 years ago. Will another one come? Perhaps not in our lifetimes, because of all these lesser quakes, as mentioned. the 6.3, the 7.0 despite the destruction, did release energy. The hundreds of small shakes we get all year long continue the process.

End game: If you build, build to code, it is more expensive, but you will be safer.

You know, there might be rhyme and reason why the Tainos built with sticks....any shaking and they could play "Pick up Sticks!!" but no loss of life. In Guatemala, maybe 30 years ago, 25000 lost their lives, in minutes, when the adobe houses they lived in caved in during a 7+ quake.

Good thread. Don't know if this contributes anything to it....must be depresssed today...long week behind and a longer one ahead.

HB