Comment on Lisbon 1755: A case of triggered onshore rupture? by Susana P. Vilanova, Catarina F. Nunes, and Joao F.B.D. Fonseca

The work published recently by Vilanova et al. (2003) in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America proposes that the accounts of destruction and other effects reported in the Lisbon area as a result of the 1 November 1755 earthquake are best explained by a local rupture on the Lower Tagus Valley fault (LTVF), triggered by the static stress change produced by the main offshore source located in the Gorringe area. Because of the potential impact of this hypothesis on the seismic hazard of the Lisbon area, we discuss and complement the evidence presented by Vilanova and co-workers, concluding that the "local rupture model" should remain, for the moment, as an unsubstantiated speculation.