Mw 6.8 MOROCCO on September 8th 2023 at 22:11 UTC

Last update: 13 September 2023 at 12:37 UTC


Earthquake overview

An earthquake of magnitude Mw 6.8 hit MOROCCO, 79 km SSW of Marrakesh on September 8th 2023 at 22:11 UTC (at 23:11 in local time). Seismological information is available here.

At the time of this report, several buildings are damaged and local authorities report 2901 victims, more than 5530 people has been injured and unfortunately many people are still missing.
More than 30 earthquakes have been recorded in the past 3 days from the earthquake onset. A lot of them have been felt by the population.

In this region, the latest deadliest earthquake was in 1960, February 29th near Agadir for which tens of thousands victims have been counted (source Utsu, 2002 [link]).

Did you feel the earthquake and take photos or videos of its effects (on buildings, ground, landscape)? Share your testimony with us using this link ("I felt this earthquake").

Seismic information
Past Regional Seismicity as from the ISC catalogue (1964-2004) and EMSC Real Time catalogue (2005-today) Moment tensors solutions received at EMSC

 

Eyewitnesses observations

The EMSC collects testimonies from people who felt the earthquake. This information is collected through the LastQake mobile application, mobile or desktop website. The map below shows the testimonies collected by the EMSC for the main shock. Each coloured dot corresponds to a witness observation, which we call a "felt report". The redder the dot, the more intense the earthquake was felt.
By aggregating the reports, we can quickly map the effetcs of the earthquake.

Felt Report Map

This graph shows the change in intensity as a function of distance from the epicentre. Intensity ranges from 1 to 12 and measures the observed effects of the earthquake in terms of shaking and damage at a given location. An earthquake is therefore associated with one magnitude and a variety of intensities, depending on where it is observed. For example, we can see that at a distance of 60 km from the epicentre, the average intensity is around 7. Moreover you can notice the general trend that the further you are from the epicenter, the less intensively you feel the earthquake.

Aftershocks

After a large earthquake, a lot of smaller earthquake may occurs in the area of the main shock. They are called aftershocks and are caused by the adjustment of the crust to the effects of the main shock. Below is a summary of the recorded aftershocks. It is likely that there will be more in the coming days. If you are in the affected area, please remain cautious.

Map of aftershocks using data from the Moroccan Institute CNRST updated on 2023-09-13.

Send us pictures or videos

The EMSC also collects photos and videos from eyewitnesses. Combined with geolocation, these provide a picture of the situation and damage on the ground.