A ” light An earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale was felt this Friday morning in Ouarzazate, southern Morocco.
According to Nasser Jebbour, head of division at the National Institute of Geophysics (ING), only a few people felt this slight tremor in Ouarzazate and no damage was reported, since the magnitude was relatively weak.
Unlike cities like Agadir or northern Morocco, Ouarzazate is not known for earthquakes. However, according to the official at ING, the region is not devoid of seismic activity, although it is much less compared to the north of the Kingdom, where earthquakes are more frequent and more intense.
” From time to time, the city of Ouarzazate is subject to such tremors. On average, we register an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale every three to four months. These tremors are slightly felt, unlike those in northern Morocco or Agadir“, he clarified.
In this sense, he recalled that the city of Agadir had experienced two to three major earthquakes at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. “ However, that has now stopped. But they come back with a frequency of two to three months“, he pointed out.
The expert nevertheless clarified that the northern region of Morocco experiences daily seismic activity, mainly offshore, near the northern marine coasts. This explains why the inhabitants do not feel these tremors, because they occur about 30 km from the coast, he pointed out.
But how to explain the earthquakes in the region of Ouarzazate? According to the expert, the region is crossed by a major geological fault known as the South Atlastic Fault. This fault extends from Agadir eastwards to Tunisia and serves as a separation between the mountainous structures of the High Atlas and the South Anti-Atlas. It is a convergence zone, which explains the occasional earthquakes, concluded the expert.