Why is the Moroccan earthquake so "deadly"?, A 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused over 2800 deaths
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On September 8th, Morocco was hit by the most destructive earthquake in decades. The earthquake occurred in the High Atlas Mountains, about 70 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, and has killed more than 2800 people and injured more than 2500. As rescue and recovery efforts continue, the number of deaths may continue to rise.
Why is this earthquake so deadly? According to seismologists and disaster reduction experts, multiple factors contributed to this tragedy.
Firstly, the magnitude. The Moroccan National Geological Monitoring Agency said that the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0, which was not a big one. The earthquake that destroyed parts of Türkiye and Syria in February this year had a magnitude of 7.8. But R é my Bossu, Secretary General of the European Mediterranean Earthquake Center, said that for Morocco, this magnitude is unusually large.
North Africa is an area with relatively active earthquakes. Earthquakes are often caused by the continuous collision of tectonic plates in Africa and Eurasia. "The collision revealed seismic activity from Türkiye to Gibraltar," Bossu said.
"This is a rather complicated collision." Ziggy Lubkowski, deputy director of seismic design of Arup Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. in London, UK, added that both are continental plates, so the collision forced the rocks to move upward, forming the Atlas Mountains in the area where the earthquake occurred.
Due to the fact that the region is only a moderately active area for earthquakes, true major earthquakes only occur once every few hundred years. Bossu said, unfortunately, the time recorded by the earthquake is not long enough to trace back enough to indicate the possible occurrence of a major earthquake in the region. "Assessing the maximum magnitude is very challenging, especially in environments with moderate seismic activity, as our observation time is too short."
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More complex is the nature of plate boundaries. In some areas, such as Türkiye, there is only one clear border. Bossu said that in North Africa, there is a larger fault network. This means that although the risk of earthquakes occurring in local areas is not very high, the risk of large-scale earthquakes is still high.
Ilan Kelman, a disaster researcher at University College London in the UK, said that the biggest reason for this disaster is a lack of preparation. He said, "Earthquakes don't kill people, but collapsed infrastructure can be devastating because people are not yet prepared."
Kelman said that even moderate earthquakes can be fatal without proper preparation. He mentioned the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 29, 1960 in Agadir, Morocco. The earthquake caused about one-third of the city's population to die and another one-third to be injured, mainly due to the collapse of buildings. Although it was not a major earthquake, the United States Geological Survey referred to it as the "most destructive 'moderate' earthquake of the 20th century.".
Kelman stated that most of the buildings in the affected area were built with bricks, stones, and "aggregates". Aggregates are granular materials such as gravel or sand that are prone to collapse. He said that reinforcing buildings with stronger materials such as reinforced concrete may be helpful, but this may not be realistic for the region as the level of poverty is high.
Kelman said that buildings in Morocco are usually designed to withstand extreme temperatures, which is an ongoing risk, and seismic resistance is of secondary importance, partly because earthquakes rarely occur. In other regions, traditional building materials such as bricks, stones, or adobe have seismic resistance.
He stated that it is crucial to make earthquake resilience a part of sustainable development. It is suggested that each person should have a "travel bag" containing essential items such as bottled water, non perishable food, medicine, and communication tools, but they need enough money to purchase and replenish these supplies.
Therefore, Kelman suggests that buildings with seismic resistance will address a wider range of social issues, such as poverty and lack of education. "All efforts to reduce disaster risk are related to development."
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