They arrived at the port of Valdivia on 8 February 1835. Twelve days later, Darwin was on shore when he experienced a severe earthquake and returned to find the port town badly damaged. They sailed north to Concepción, and arrived on 4 March to find that the same earthquake had devastated the city by repeated shocks and a tsunami, with even the cathedral in ruins. Darwin noted the horrors of death and destruction, and FitzRoy carefully established that mussel beds were now above high tide, giving clear evidence of the ground rising some , which he confirmed a month later. They had actually experienced the gradual process of the continent emerging from the ocean, as Lyell had indicated.