Mantle rise may be the reason behind Morocco earthquake

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the High Atlas Mountains in western Morocco in September 2023. New research suggests the quake may have been caused by mantle upwelling. Copyright: Ralph Steinberger, CC BY 2.0

On September 8, 2023, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck western Morocco, causing damage and destruction that killed thousands in rural communities in the High Atlas Mountains.

Prior to the 2023 event, the last major earthquake to affect Morocco occurred in 1960, and this long period of seismic silence may have contributed to the region and its infrastructure being unprepared for a major earthquake and associated damage.

Most of Morocco’s seismic activity is near the Rif Mountains, north of the expected 2023 quake epicenter, which were formed when the African and Eurasian plates converged. But near the High Atlas Mountains—the tallest in North Africa, with peaks more than 4,000 meters high—the two plates are converging at a rate of only about one millimeter a year.

It is believed that mantle upwelling under the High Atlas Mountains, rather than slow convergence, is the main reason why these peaks reach this height.

Examining geodetic and seismic data, Kai Huang and colleagues found that the 2023 Morocco earthquake originated in the Tizi n'Test fault system on a fault line with an epicenter about 26 kilometers below the surface and that the strongest fault impacts occurred at depths of 12–36 kilometers. The event displaced the Moho, the boundary about 32 kilometers below the surface where the crust meets the mantle.

Given the earthquake's unusually deep origin and its location far from plate boundaries, the researchers suggest the quake may have been triggered by the same mantle uplift that helps lift the High Atlas Mountains, rather than by fault activity closer to the surface.

The findings, which appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggest that seismic hazard models should include more data on deep dynamics in intraplate regions, which are often ignored in favor of plate boundary dynamics, according to the authors.

They also highlight the importance of earthquake monitoring in areas, such as this one, where slow deformation rates and complex fault structures cause rare but devastating disasters.

For more information: Kai Huang et al, The 2023 Mw 6.8 Morocco Earthquake: A Lower Crust Event Triggered by Mantle Upwelling?, Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024GL109052

This story is republished with permission from Eos, hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Read the original story here.

Citation: Mantle upwelling may have triggered Morocco earthquake (2024, July 19) Retrieved July 19, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-mantle-upwelling-triggered-morocco-earthquake.html

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