Earthquake Hits Agadir

This morning Agadir was shaken by a low intensity magnitude earthquake. The earthquake, measuring 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale, shook the outskirts of Agadir but first reports say there was no material damage and no injuries

The quake, which only lasted for three seconds, was reportedly felt by residents of Agadir’s Chtouka Ait Baha region, while the government-run National Institute of Geophysics issued a statement putting the earthquake’s epicentre in the region of Ait Amira.

According to local media, residents of the area vacated their homes on Monday morning after feeling the tremors, fearing something as destructive as Agadir's 1960 earthquake.

Agadir 1960

The 1960 Agadir earthquake occurred on the 29th of February at 23:40 Western European Time (UTC+00:00). Despite the earthquake's moderate magnitude of 5.7, its maximum perceived intensity was X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. Between 12,000 and 15,000 people (about a third of the city's population of the time) were killed and another 12,000 injured with at least 35,000 people left homeless, making it the most destructive and deadliest earthquake in Moroccan history. Particularly hard hit was the Talbordjt area. The earthquake's shallow focus, close proximity to the port city of Agadir, and unsatisfactory construction methods were all reasons declared by earthquake engineers and seismologists as to why it was so destructive.

In 2014, Agadir was hit by a similar low-intensity earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale.

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Seismic Activity in Morocco's North Causes Concern

Over the last few months the cities of Nador and Al Hoceima have experienced repeated earthquakes and aftershocks. The effect on the local population has been, to put it mildly, unnerving

According to an earthquake tracking site Nador has experienced 2 earthquakes in the past 7 days, 11 earthquakes in the past month and a total of 25 earthquakes in the past year. Nador and Hoceima have witnessed numerous quakes since January, with the strongest measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale on Jan. 25, injuring 15 people. Following the quake there were complaints that Moroccan media were slow to release details.

A previous major earthquake, also a 6.3-magnitude one, struck Hoceima in 2004, killing 600 people and leaving thousands homeless.

The latest earthquake occurred last Wednesday (March 16th) at 4.27pm. The quake of 5.1 degrees on the Richter scale and triggered a wave of unrest, with residents calling for the implementation of emergency measures. An aftershock of magnitude 4.2 was felt the following day (Thursday). The epicentre was 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Al Hoceima.

Earlier quakes in the region

While the area is known to be seismically active, the regularity of the quakes is causing alarm and psychological distress to the extent that following Wednesday's quake many of the people of Nador and Al Hoceima took to the streets and experienced a sleepless night rather than stay in their homes.

Nador residents feel safer in the streets

According to the local newspaper Nador City, citizens took to the streets and left their houses and most of them did not return home all night. Local authorities have counted twenty-six cases of fainting in schools in the province of Al Hoceima. The students were transferred to the nearest health centres and left after receiving the necessary assistance.

Damage in Melilla following January quake

Perhaps the strangest reaction to the earthquakes came from Yahya El Mdaghri, a Moroccan imam, who attributed the January series of earthquakes in Nador and Al Hoceima, to divine wrath! El Mdaghri, the imam of the Hamza Mosque in Salé, said during traditional Friday prayer that God knows what He is doing, implying that the earthquakes were the result of God’s punishment for the region. The imam said that if the earthquakes happened in such regions, which he described as “mired in drug trafficking”, then the people deserved the disasters.

According to the Le360 news website the imam, instead of showing support for the victims of the earthquake, showed no compassion and allegedly blamed Moroccans’ behaviour for the natural disaster.

Residents of northern Morocco were outraged by the imam’s words and have described him as “ISIS-like”.

A little seismic history tells another story

Back on November 1st, 1755, a massive quake struck Portugal, Spain and northern Morocco in what came to be known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake. With an estimated magnitude of 8.5 to 9.0, the earthquake nearly destroyed the city of Lisbon. What wasn't destroyed by the quake was demolished in the ensuing tsunami and fires that raged for days. Altogether, at least 40,000 people were killed.

More than 250 years later, geologists are still piecing together the tectonic story behind that powerful earthquake. A unique subduction zone beneath Gibraltar, the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, now seems to be culprit. Subduction zones are the spots where one of Earth's tectonic plates dives beneath another, often producing some of the world's strongest earthquakes.

Marc-Andre Gutscher, a geologist at the University of Brest in France, says, "If subduction occurred, and is still occurring here, then it's highly relevant to understanding the region's seismic hazards."

Gutscher's work has shown that sunken ocean lithosphere — a layer that comprises Earth's crust and upper mantle — lies beneath Gibraltar, and that it's still attached to the northern part of the African Plate. Other teams have found crumpled ocean crust and active mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz, where water within the buried lithosphere mixes with sediments and boils up to the surface.

Altogether, these lines of evidence make a pretty convincing case for subduction, Gutscher said.

The world's tectonic plates

But unlike the textbook examples of huge subduction zones found at the Mariana Trench or under Alaska's Aleutian Islands, this subduction zone is comparatively tiny.

"Its very small size and ultra-slow motion make the Gibraltar subduction zone unique," Gutscher says. "It's probably the narrowest subduction zone in the world — about 200 kilometres [120 miles] wide at most — and it's moving at far less than a centimeter per year."

What's happening under Gibraltar is an example of something called rollback subduction: As the sliver of lithosphere sinks into the mantle, the line where it's still "hinged" to the African Plate rolls back further and further, stretching the crust above it.

If subduction under Gibraltar is a thing of the past, there's little danger of future earthquakes. But that's not true if it is still happening — as Gutscher and many others believe to be the case.

That's because subduction has already created a tiny tectonic block, or microplate, between the African and Eurasian Plates. Researchers using GPS have shown that this microplate is still moving a few millimeters westward every year, thanks to ongoing rollback subduction.

The boundaries of this microplate lie in southern Spain and northern Morocco. Like California's San Andreas Fault, they're strike-slip boundaries (but smaller and slower-moving), so they're capable of generating earthquakes every now and then, Gutscher says.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake

But as far as another Great Lisbon Earthquake, residents of this region can breathe easy — at least for another millennium or so.

"Given the very slow motion of the faults in the area, you need many centuries to build up enough slip to generate such a great earthquake," Gutscher explained. "A magnitude-8.5 or -9 earthquake is probably pretty much out of the question, since the last such tremendous event was only 250 years ago."

While the science may be correct, it is little comfort to the citizens of Nador and El Hociema, who are living on shaky ground.

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New Earthquake in Northern Morocco

Morocco has seen an ongoing series of earthquakes since December 2015. The latest, a quake of 5.3 on the Richter scale, was recorded on Friday off the coast of Nador and Al Hoceima.

According to reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and from the Institute of the National Centre for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), the latest quake, registered at 4:16 am, was followed 3 minutes later by an aftershock measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale.

Since December 2015 a series of tremors of various magnitudes and aftershocks have occurred  that seismologists attribute to an intense activity of the Eurasian and African plates, near the Moroccan region.

On January 25th this year a 6.3-magnitude earthquake caused some material damage in southern Spain and northern Morocco, although no deaths or injuries were reported. It was again in the same region, about 40 miles north of Al Hoceima, where 12 years ago an earthquake left hundreds dead.


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Earthquake Hits Morocco and Spain

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 degrees on the Richter scale, was recorded in the early hours of Monday off Nador and Al Hoceima in northern Morocco. The epicentre was at a depth of 10 kilometres, 62km NNE of Al Hoceima. The quake was also felt in southern Spain and in the Strait of Gibraltar and as far away as Fez

Damage in Melilla

Several sources ,including Rif24. report the death of of an  8 year old child. There are also reports of five cases of individuals who suffered fractures and some cases of fainting.

The earthquake was also felt in the Spanish occupied town of Melilla in Moroccan territory, causing electrical cuts and structural damage.

Many in Fez were woken by the earthquake, with one Medina resident describing the "rattling of windows" and the smaller jolts of aftershocks. There are no reports of injuries or structural problems.

Rubble in Nador

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) issued a map showing the cities where the tremor was felt. According to the same source, the quake occurred on Monday at 5:03 am local time (GMT). The same source said that five aftershocks have been felt along the Strait of Gibraltar in the following hours: 5.0 at 4:30 local time, 5.3 at 4:34, 4.6 at 5:03, 5.1 at 5:54 and 5.3 at 6:10.

The epicentre of the earthquake was located near the city of Al Hoceima, which was hit in 2004 by a devastating earthquake. The earthquake was also felt in Fez, Morocco’s second most populous city after Casablanca, as well as in Taza.

This earthquake comes few days after another earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 degrees on the Richter scale, was recorded Thursday off Nador, according to a statement from the National Institute of Geophysics, an arm of the National Centre for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST).

Morocco has had 11 earthquakes in the past 7 days, all in the region of Al Hoceïma.

There has been criticism in Morocco of the lack of coverage of the event on Moroccan TV channels.

Morocco World News reports that well known singer Asmae Lmnawar criticised the lack of coverage.

“I have a question I can’t keep for myself: Don’t Moroccan TV channels know that we need to know what happened? They dealt with this in cold way, and thank God there are other sources of information,” the Moroccan singer said on her official page.

Singer Asmae Lmnawar criticised the lack of coverage

While international media have been reporting on the disaster as it happened and kept updating their audiences with the latest available information, Moroccan media have shown no interest in updating the Moroccan public.

In the absence of a real and professional coverage of the earthquake, most Moroccans turned to Spanish media to obtain first-hand information. Spanish national television showed panicked people on the streets in coastal cities in southern Spain as well as in occupied Melilla.

Television reports showed people surveying cracked building facades, but the regional government of Andalusia, in southern Spain, issued a statement saying that there had been no reports of casualties. The tremors were felt as far inland as Seville, the capital of Andalusia.

Morocco World News was among the first news outlets in the world to report on the earthquake just few minutes after it occurred.

In February 2004, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake near Al Hoceima killed 631 people. The last major earthquake in Spain, in 2011, destroyed much of the town of Lorca, in the southeast, and killed nine people.

A seismic snapshot

The Mediterranean region is seismically active due to the northward convergence (4-10 mm/yr) of the African plate with the Eurasian plate. The movement is between 4 and 10 mm/year along the  complex plate boundary.

In the Mediterranean region there is a written record, several centuries long, documenting pre-instrumental seismicity (pre-20th century). Earthquakes have historically caused widespread damage across central and southern Greece, Cyprus, Sicily, Crete, the Nile Delta, Northern Libya, the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. The 1903 8.2 Kythera earthquake and the 1926 7.8 Rhodes earthquakes are the largest instrumentally recorded Mediterranean earthquakes

Between 1939 and 1999 a series of devastating 7+ strike-slip earthquakes propagated westward along the North Anatolian Fault Zone, beginning with the 1939 7.8 Erzincan earthquake on the eastern end of the North Anatolian Fault system. The 1999 7.6  Izmit earthquake, located on the westward end of the fault, struck one of Turkey's most densely populated and industrialised urban areas killing, more than 17,000 people. Although seismicity rates are comparatively low along the northern margin of the African continent, large destructive earthquakes have been recorded and reported from Morocco in the western Mediterranean, to the Dead Sea in the eastern Mediterranean. The 1980 7.3 El Asnam earthquake was one of Africa's largest and most destructive earthquakes within the 20th century.

Large earthquakes throughout the Mediterranean region have also been known to produce significant and damaging tsunamis. One of the more prominent historical earthquakes within the region is the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755, whose magnitude has been estimated from non-instrumental data to be about 8.0.  The earthquake is notable for both a large death toll of approximately 60,000 people and for generating a tsunami that swept up the Portuguese coast inundating coastal villages and Lisbon.

The 7.2 December 28, 1908 Messina earthquake is the deadliest documented European earthquake. The combination of severe ground shaking and a local tsunami caused an estimated 60,000 to 120,000 fatalities.

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Small Earthquake Felt From Fez To Ifrane

An earthquake in the Fez region was felt over a wide area this morning. The earthquake, which was described as moderate, shook windows and furniture and woke many people in the area. No aftershocks were recorded and no casualties or material damages have been reported.

Magnitude : 4.5
Local Time : 2014-04-15 08:56:47
GMT/UTC Time : 2014-04-15 07:56:47
Depth (Hypocenter) : 2 km

A smaller earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale was recorded the same day last year (Tuesday April 16, 2013) in Ifrane province (60 km from Fez).

The worst recent earthquake recorded in Morocco was that of the coastal city of Al Houceima, on the northern edge of the Rif Mountains. The tragic earthquake was of magnitude 6,4 MI, and caused about 628 deaths, 926 injuries, the destruction 2,539 homes, and more than 15,000 people were left homeless.

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Fez Earthquake Update ~ Five Shocks in Ten Days

There has been an unusual amount of seismic activity in the Fez region over the last few days. Thankfully none of it destructive. Three earthquakes were recorded on Thursday morning. The first of magnitude 4 on the Richter scale, whose epicentre was in Ain Bida, occurred at 5:29. The second, whose epicentre was in the town of Agdal, occurred at 5:42 and had a magnitude of 3.8

In district of Sidi Boujida, many people took to the streets. "After completing the Fajr prayer in the mosque next door, I returned to the house where the walls of my house started shaking," said  a resident.

Local authorities have assured that these shocks caused no casualties or damage. Later the government seismic research institute, the  CNRST recorded another quake in Ain Kansra. With a magnitude of 3.8 degrees, it was observed at 11:28.

These earthquakes came only ten days after the first earthquake in Oued Ifrane, in the neighbouring province of Ifrane. With a magnitude of 4.3 degrees on the Richter scale, it was followed by another a few days later in the town of Ain ​​Leuh (3.8 degrees).

Tectonic plates in Morocco's region

 Morocco is located in a geographical area prone only to moderate seismic activity, but relatively strong earthquakes may occur. One of the factors is the geographic location of the eastern end of the Rif mountain belt, which is part of the diffuse boundary between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates.

 As a reminder, February 29, 1960, earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 degrees in Agadir, had 12,000 victims. More recently, on February 24, 2004 at Imzouren near Al Hoceima, a violent quake of 6.3 degrees  killed 629, injured 926 people and left 15,230 homeless.

A history of major Moroccan earthquakes

Rescue workers pulled children from the rubble up to twelve days after the Agadir quake

The 1960 Agadir earthquake took place on Monday, February 29th 1960 at 23.47. The death toll from the 6.7 magnitude quake  was 12,000. The earthquake was the worst to ever hit Morocco.

Modern-day Agadir was rebuilt a mile (2kms) south of the earthquake epicentre and is now a seaport and seaside resort with a large sandy beach.

The magnitude 6.0 Al Hoceima earthquake of May 26, 1994, injured one person and caused significant damage to adobe buildings.

A resident of the village of Imzouren, near Al Hoceima, steps over rubble a day after an earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the open-ended Richter scale, hit the region in 2004

The 2004 Morocco earthquake was a magnitude 6.4  and occurred on 24 February  near the coast of northern Morocco. At least 631 people were killed, 926 injured, 2,539 homes destroyed and more than 15,000 people homeless in the Al Hoceima-Imzourene-Beni Abdallah area. The quake was felt from Tetouan to Nador and as far south as Fez. Several aftershocks killed at least three people and destroyed previously weakened buildings.


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Fez Residents Report Earthquakes

Residents of Fez contacted The View from Fez to report two earthquakes early this morning. The first at 05.29 was a jolt strong enough to cause buildings to sway and the residents to leave their homes and take to the streets. There have been no reports of damage or injuries

"Everyone from our area was in the street," one resident told us. Another reported that at first he thought he was falling ill and had lost his balance, but was relieved to find all his neighbours experiencing the same thing.

"The streets were crowded, with people afraid of a larger shock," another resident told TVFF. Then another quake struck some time later and was reported to be of the same size.

"I only felt the first zinzall (earthquake)", says Rachid. "The windows rattled and my doors banged. What could I do? Nothing! So I went back to bed. I didn't feel the second quake."

The quake registered magnitude 4 degrees on the Richter scale and was felt throughout the province of Fez.

A statement of the National Centre for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST) reports the quake ocurred at 5:29, with a magnitude of 4 degrees with the epicentre at  Ain Bida. The second quake which occurred at 5:42 was located in the district of Agdal (province of Fez). This earthquake registered 3.8 on the Richter scale


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Morocco ~ Then and Now - El Hoceima

The View from Fez is in debt to Enzo Pantosti for bringing the old photograph of El Hoceima to our attention. The photographer of the 1950's shot is unknown, but Enzo took the modern one.

Al Hoceima, Hotel Etoile du Rif, 1950. In those years, it was called Hotel Florido.

Al Hoceima is a city in the north of Morocco on a northern edge of the Rif Mountains, on the Mediterranean coast. It is situated in the territory of the Ayt Weryaghel and Ibeqquyen tribes of the Rif, who speak Tarifit Berber, locally called Tamazight.

Between 1994 and 2004 the town and surrounding villages were hit by two earthquakes. The first, at 6.0 on the Richter scale, occurred on May 26, 1994. The second, at 6.4, occurred on February 24, 2004, killing more than 560 people.


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Small Earthquake Felt in Fez

Did the earth move for you? If you happened to feel a small tremor about half an hour after midnight, then you can blame seismic activity. According to seismologists the quake measured 4.1 on the Richter scale and was located about 70 kilometres North West of Fez. No damage has been reported.

Here are the details.

Earthquake Magnitude 4.1
Date-Time Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 00:28:25 UTC
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 12:28:25 AM at epicentre.
Location 34.479°N, 5.542°W
Depth 10.1 km (6.3 miles)
Region MOROCCO
Distances
70 km (43 miles) NW of Fes
129 km (80 miles) ENE of RABAT
146 km (90 miles) S of Tanger
215 km (133 miles) ENE of Casablanca


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Small Earthquakes - central and southern Morocco

Three light tremors of a magnitude ranging between 3.2 and 3.6 on the Richter scale were felt on Saturday and Sunday in the centre and the south of Morocco, the National Geophysics Institute reported.

On Saturday night, a light earthquake of a magnitude of 3.2 hit the commune of Ouisselsate (province of the southern city of Ouazrazate), according to the same source.

On Sunday morning, two other tremors of a magnitude of 3.6 and 3.4 struck the provinces of the central cities of Khenifra and Azilal respectively. There have been no reports of damage.

The earth moves in Essaouira!

Spices in the souq in Essaouira.. no damage!

Magnitude 4.6 earthquake hits Essaouira province

An earth tremor measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale hit Saturday evening the province of Essaouira, southern Morocco, the National Geophysics Institute reported.

The epicentre of the quake, which occurred at around 8 pm, was in the commune of Sidi Kaouki, about 20 km from Essaouira.

No casualties or losses were reported, according to local authorities.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Morocco feels the earth move.

Although most people in Fez were oblivious to it - the earth did move on Monday at around 10.30 GMT. Yes, another earthquake, although according to a number of reports it only lasted a few seconds and resulted in no damage and no injuries. The interesting thing according to seismologists is that this appears to be part of an earthquake cluster with the last two earthquakes hitting on the 30th of January. In that case it was probably a primary quake and an after-shock, as this first was just over seven on the Richter scale and the second down to level five.

Monday's quake was reported by news agencies in the region with the Kuwait News Agency saying that the people "rushed onto the streets" and saying that it struck Rabat, Kanitra, Al-Jadida and Casablanca. According to the Moroccan Geophysics Institute, the weak magnitude of the earth tremor was so low that it was unable to produce a tsunami.

Head of the service of earthquake surveillance at the ING, Jebbour Nacer, told a Moroccan TV channel that the tremor, registering 6.3 points on the Richter scale, and we can expect it to be followed by weaker quakes.The epicenter according to ING was about 260km offshore from the capital, Rabat.

The Facts

The U.S. Geological Survey report states that the 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 1035 GMT 335 kms (210 miles) from Lisbon and 345 km (215 miles) north-west of Casablanca in Morocco.

Portugal's press also reported the quake being felt in Lisbon and the Spaniards were saying it hit Andalucia. Reuters was reporting that "Mobile phones briefly stopped working as people made urgent calls to check relatives were safe. The tremor revived painful memories of an earthquake in the Moroccan town of Al Hoceima in 2004 which killed nearly 600 people and made thousands homeless."


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Waterfront views from the Medina?

Now, while it is true that many weird and wonderful rumours sweep through the Medina (the price of brass will double because of international oil prices - hence your brass lamp MUST be bought today to save!) the latest is simply wonderful. A tsunami will be caused by pieces of a comet that will hit the Atlantic Ocean!!! Not only did this story gain some believers, the story was so widespread that the Moroccan Meteorological office has gone as far as proclaiming an official denial.

This denial comes after the Ufological Research Center warned on its website of a tsunami danger that would affect several countries, including Morocco.

Eric Julien, author of La Science Des Extraterrestres made an alert in his website about tsunami.

He claims that he has received information psychically, which is corroborated by scientific data, according to which on May 25, 2006 a giant tsunami will occur in the Atlantic Ocean, brought about by the impact of a comet fragment which will provoke the eruption of under-sea volcanoes.

He said that waves up to 200 m high will reach coastlines located above and below the Tropic of Cancer. He added that all of the countries bordering the Atlantic will be affected to greater or lesser destructive and deadly levels.

However, the head of the Meteorological Office, Mustapha Janah, told MAP news agency "the Ufological Research Center does not have technical means" to observe this kind of phenomenon.

Citing the American space agency "NASA," the official noted that the comet will pass away from planet earth at about 10 million kilometres, excluding hence any risk of a tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean.

The last tsunami hit the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, 2004. It was caused by a 9- magnitude earthquake which killed nearly 150,000 people throughout the region, and left more than 1.5 million homeless.

The 2004 tsunami is the worst in recorded history. Prior to 2004, the deadliest recorded tsunami in the Pacific Ocean was in 1782, when 40,000 people were killed by a tsunami in the South China Sea.

The tsunami created by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa is thought to have resulted in 36,000 deaths.

The most deadly tsunami between 1900 and 2004 occurred in 1908 in Messina, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea, where the earthquake and tsunami killed 70,000.

The most deadly tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean resulted from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which, combined with the toll from the actual earthquake and resulting fires, killed over 100,000.

So for all of you people in Fez busy building an arc with zellij floors, grand salons and extra room for the donkey... relax, and do not expect to wake up any day soon with a waterfront view!

Oh, and by the way, there is a rumour that we will have the internet on some day soon... inshallah.

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Central Morocco struck by earthquake

An earthquake, estimated at 3.9% on the Richter Scale, struck Friday evening the town of Beni Mellal, 260 southeast of the capital Rabat.

The epicenter of the quake, which hit at 11:44 pm GMT, was located at the commune of Ouled Youssef.

This was not the first time Morocco was struck by earthquakes in the recent years.

In December 2004, a 5.1 Richter Scale earth quake struck the northern region of Nador, with several aftershocks felt on the following days.

But the hardest was the shattering earthquake that struck Al Hoceima, another northern province, claiming over 560 lives and leaving hundreds homeless.

In 1960, a huge earthquake devastated the southern city of Agadir killing thousands. The tremor measured 6.7 on the Richter scale.

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news