The magnitude 7 earthquake that has shaken the Marrakech region "was not expected" because, although historically there have been earthquakes in the area, they had never before reached such force, according to Carlos González, a seismologist at the National Geographic Institute.
"You could expect an earthquake there, but not as strong, magnitude 5 at most," says González, who points out that what happened will have to be studied before being able to draw conclusions as to why it has been so strong.
Apparently, the cause could be in a fault, called South Atlas, which is mapped, but which was not expected to exceed magnitudes of 6.4.
According to data collected by the National Geographic Institute, in Spain, the earthquake has been felt in Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, although the data will have to be adjusted.
“The intensity of an earthquake is given to us by the questionnaires that citizens fill out and the damage it causes, and the magnitude is not given by the energy that the devices measure,” adds the seismologist.
The Richter scale, which assigns a number to quantify the energy released by an earthquake, has no limits, González emphasizes, after explaining that, for example, in Japan or Chile earthquakes of high magnitudes can be expected, and that in those areas, the one hit by the Moroccan earthquake, “is not a big deal.”
Regarding the damage that an earthquake can cause, the seismologist details that its capacity for devastation will depend, mainly, on the resistance of the buildings, whether or not they have been built to resist the seismic danger of the area, and the depth. to which the earthquake is recorded.
“If it is very deep, the waves are attenuated and the effects will be minor,” while if it is superficial, if it is recorded at a shallow depth, as has been the case in Morocco (about 15 kilometers), the damage will be greater. "The closer, the more damage," he stresses.
