Earthquakes in Morocco

Morocco lies along the western end of the boundary where the African and Eurasian plates converge, a slow collision that shapes the Rif mountains in the north and the High Atlas that runs across the center of the country. Strain accumulates on faults threading through these ranges, while the nearby Alboran Sea and Azores-Gibraltar zone add offshore sources of seismicity. Although quakes are less frequent than in the eastern Mediterranean, they can be highly destructive when they strike populated highland areas.

The 2023 Al Haouz earthquake, a magnitude 6.8 shock in the High Atlas south of Marrakech, was the strongest recorded in Morocco's modern history and killed nearly 3,000 people, devastating traditional villages built of stone and earth. It followed the far smaller but deadly 1960 Agadir earthquake, a magnitude 5.8 event that destroyed that coastal city and claimed around 12,000 lives.