At least 630 dead as powerful earthquake hits Morocco near Marrakesh

The strength of the quake has been reported to be around a Magnitude 7 and as expected the damage is severe. Hopefully rescue teams can get the survivors out of the ruble before it is to late.

A powerful earthquake has killed at least 632 people in Morocco.
There’s significant damage being reported, and the number of casualties is expected to rise.
The U-S geological survey says the magnitude SEVEN quake struck some 70 kilometers south of Marrakesh.

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People have been saying this... expect more strong quakes.
I think they are right.

It looks like it was a 6.8 followed by a 4.9 aftershock. I would assume the death toll will increase as more people are found..

More than 800 people were killed and hundreds more injured after a powerful 6.8 earthquake rocked the African nation of Morocco Friday night, destroying buildings and leaving scenes of chaos.

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a reply to: 727Sky

Supposedly Morocco hasn't had this large of an earthquake since 1900 (within 310 miles of that one) so this is a rare event. Nevertheless, the loss of life and destruction is terrible.

a reply to: quintessentone

Yes, they got hit hard. The death toll is over 1K now. I read one testimony that it lasted 10 seconds and afterwards, everything was gone, destroyed.

I've also read that Algeria has offered humanitarian aid and opened up its airspace to allow flights to reach the damaged area more quickly. The two countries don't have diplomatic ties after some territorial dispute.

Prayers for the victims.

This is uncommon, but not a Unicorn. Definitely not a location one could predict the next devastating one to happen.

Definitely something they were not ready for:



This won't be as bad as Turkey, because this was orders of magnitude weaker, but Marrakech is going to lose a lot of buildings and sadly watch the death toll rise. The obligatory sending of thoughts and prayers goes here.

The September 8, 2023, M 6.8 earthquake near Oukaïmedene, Morocco, occurred due to oblique-reverse faulting at shallow depth within the Moroccan High Atlas Mountain range, roughly 75 km southeast of Marrakech. Focal mechanism solutions for the event indicate rupture occurred on a steeply dipping oblique-reverse fault striking to the northwest or a shallow dipping oblique-reverse fault striking to the east. The High Atlas Mountains contain a variety of mapped strike-slip and thrust faults, trending to the east-west and northeast-southwest. This earthquake occurred within the Africa Plate, approximately 550 km south of the plate boundary between the Africa and Eurasia plates. At the location of this earthquake, the African plate moves approximately 24 mm/year WSW relative to the Eurasia plate.  

The fault is similar, but steeper, than the Northridge Fault. Similar type of event.

Here is an article about the specific area in question.

www.sciencedirect.com...



That's the geoscience of it.

My favorite place in the world: Marrakech. My heart is broken for their loss. Old adobe type buildings. Villages all thru the High Atlas. I reached out to a friend there who answered back, so nobody I know is missing. Such a shame, the older construction. Modern parts of the city Im sure faired much better, but that is actually the smaller part of the city. Keep these kind and good people in your prayers.

a reply to: Encia22

I felt it, some 840 km away, here in Portugal, near Lisbon.

And I also thought it lasted a long time, but your reference to it is the first I find confirming what I felt.

a reply to: quintessentone

Not really rare, 120 years is nothing geologically.

Portugal has a lower seismic activity than Morocco and we had (many years ago, in 1755) one of the largest earthquake ever recorded in Europe, its epicentre in the Atlantic ocean, almost half way between Portugal and Morocco (closer to Portugal).

a reply to: 727Sky

It looks like it was a 6.8 followed by a 4.9 aftershock. I would assume the death toll will increase as more people are found..

I just saw on TV about a half hour ago.
2000 dead, 2000 injured.
Crews hadn't gotten up into the hills yet.

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