Heat deep in the Earth, not plate tectonics, may be to blame

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Morocco's High Atlas Mountains on September 8, 2023, may have been caused by hot molten rock rising from deep within the Earth, according to a new study by scientists at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China.

Researchers believe the quake, which killed 3,000 people and affected an estimated 2.8 million, was highly unusual. It was the strongest in the region since 1960. Large earthquakes typically occur where tectonic plates meet and push against each other, which was not the case in the Al Hoceima quake.

Most of Morocco’s earthquakes occur near the Rif Mountains, north of the epicentre of the 2023 quake, where the African and Eurasian plates meet. But the plates near the High Atlas Mountains, where the catastrophic event occurred, are converging at a rate of only about one millimetre per year.

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The study explains that the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountain ranges are formed by “mantle uplift processes”, meaning that the Al Haouz earthquake occurred as a result of the mantle uplift, which pushed the fault and caused it to slide.

Researchers studied the earthquake using an integration of geodetic, seismic and earthquake data to reveal where it started and how it moved underground. The study showed it began at a depth of about 26 kilometers on a fault line called the Tizi n'Test fault system.

Morocco 6.8 magnitude earthquake in 2023: Was it a lower crustal event due to mantle uplift?

“The 2023 High Atlas earthquake in Morocco, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, is a model case for understanding intraplate earthquakes under the influence of mantle upwelling,” the study said.

He also explains that “this rare earthquake in the lower crust, far from plate boundaries and in a region of low convergence rate, challenges old models of seismic hazard.”

The study concluded that such results help in understanding and improving earthquake prediction, especially in areas that do not usually witness significant seismic activity.

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