1755 Lisbon earthquake a benevolent deity. The Lisbon disaster provided a counterexample. As Theodor Adorno wrote, "[t]he earthquake of Lisbon sufficed to cure Voltaire of the theodicy of Leibniz" ("Negative Dialectics" 361). In the later twentieth century, the 1755 earthquake has sometimes been compared to the Holocaust as a catastrophe that transformed European culture and philosophy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also influenced by the devastation following the earthquake, whose severity he believed was due to too many people living within the close quarters of the city. Rousseau used the earthquake as an argument against cities as part of his desire for a more naturalistic
1983 Popayán earthquake 1983 Popayán earthquake The 1983 Popayán earthquake () occurred on 31 March in Popayán, Colombia. It had a magnitude of at least 5.5 with an epicenter south west of Popayán at a depth of . The earthquake killed 267 people and resulted in the passing of new laws requiring earthquake resistant building materials in zones at risk of tremors. Popayán had been founded in 1537 and was renowned for its beauty and surviving examples of architecture from the Spanish colonial period. The city had already suffered natural disasters and had been destroyed on three occasions by an earthquake and two