The 1663 earthquake and its omens
On 5 February 1663 a great earthquake shook New France; the Jesuit Relations and Marie de l'Incarnation recorded fiery serpents and globes in the sky, voices, and a prophecy that preceded it.
1663 CE · 47.60, -70.10 · status: official
The account
The quake, probably magnitude 7 or more centred in Charlevoix, caused huge landslides along the St. Lawrence. Colonists took it as divine punishment for selling brandy to Indigenous peoples. The sky lights are an early North American record of what may be earthquake lights.
The researched reading
A real great earthquake with lights in the sky that fit reports of earthquake lights. The omens and prophecy came from a religious reading of disaster.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A known natural phenomenon | 40% | The earthquake was real and large, roughly magnitude 7 or more, and caused huge landslides. Luminous phenomena are reported in many large earthquakes, particularly in rift settings such as Charlevoix. Thériault et al. (2014) cite the Jesuit account among them. Their physics is still debated, so this share includes a poorly understood natural effect. |
| A cultural story | 25% | The Jesuits read the quake as divine punishment for the brandy trade, and “fiery serpents” and prophecies were recorded in that providential frame, some of them after the event. |
| Undetermined | 15% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 12% | After a catastrophe, people recall earlier odd lights and words as omens, a well-known effect of hindsight on memory. |
| Something in the surroundings | 3% | Sounds of the ground and of landslides were heard as voices. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Earthquake lights are strange but natural; the prophecy cannot be checked. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | No sign of invention, though accounts were copied and embellished later. |
Official position: Seismologists accept the 1663 earthquake as one of the largest in eastern Canada’s history; the lights are cited as a possible early record of earthquake lights.