It shook a poor region where many of the houses were built without foundations, with lime or mud mortar, and with weak joints.

[6] The clock at the Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada stopped at 9:08 p.m. GMT, or 9:18 p.m. Paris time on 25 December 1884.

[8] Two observatories near Rome detected slight tremors at or just after 10:00 p.m.[9] The earthquake caused damage in a zone 200 by 80 kilometres (124 by 50 mi) in the provinces of Granada and Malaga.

That night aftershocks were also felt in Jayena, Alcaucin, Ventas de Huelma, Motril, Cacín, Dúrcal, and further away in Vélez-Málaga.

[7] A visible crack over 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long ran in a roughly east–west direction along the northern margin of the Sierra Tejeda and past Ventas de Zafarraya.

[13] The earthquake produced soil liquefaction, landslides, cracks in the ground, subsidence, changes to the flow from springs, and the release of gases.

[19] The newspaper El Defensor de Granada published the first news of the disaster on 26 December 1884, but the full extent was not really known until the next day.

[21] The civil and military heads of Granada delayed sending relief until ordered by the central government, and no aid arrived in Alhama until 4 January 1885.

[19] King Alfonso XII of Spain (1857–1885) visited 25 villages in the region between 10 and 20 January 1885, riding on horseback in severe weather.

[24] The Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer published a book of poems Caritat (Charity) to raise funds for reconstruction.

[17] People around the world sent donations to help recovery that totaled 10 million pesetas, and in 1885 the Comisaría Regia was established to distribute the funds to those in need.

[20] Ventas de Zafarraya was rebuilt almost entirely with money from Cuba, at that time a colony of Spain, and the village became known as "New Havana".

[25] In February 1885 the Ministry of the Interior called for designs by Spanish architects for new houses for the poor, which had to cost no more than 1,500 pesetas and be as strong as possible against future earthquakes.

[26] Other architects such as Francisco Jareño y Alarcón and Juan Monserrat Vergés cast doubts on whether the Belmás designs would be adequate for the harsh climate of the region.

[28] The houses that were built had solid foundations, strong frameworks, reinforced corners and other features designed to reduce risk of collapse.

To ensure access after a future earthquake, reduce the risk of falling facades and provide open places for camps the new village layouts had houses grouped in blocks, streets over 10 metres (33 ft) wide and large squares.

[26] On 7 January 1884 the Spanish government appointed a commission to study the earthquake led by the mining engineer Manuel Fernández de Castro y Suero (1825–1895).

[32] The preliminary report devoted seven pages to current theories of earthquake causes, volcanic and non-volcanic, including the internal heat of the earth, high pressure vapors and dissolution of rocks by underground waters.

[35] The Italian Government and the Accademia dei Lincei sent the seismologists Torquato Taramelli (1845–1922) and Giuseppe Mercalli (1850–1912), who also provided a long report on the area's geology with a map of the intensity of the shaking.

[32] Mercalli thought the earthquake was produced by the build-up of pressure in magma in a region where the crust was too strong to allow a volcanic eruption.

[38] The pioneering geologist José Macpherson y Hemas (1839–1902) explained the earthquake as having been caused by movement along the faults that bound the Tejeda / Almijara massif to the north and south.