This earthquake is the deadliest in Morocco since the one that destroyed Agadir, on the west coast of the country, on February 29, 1960. A third of the population of the city at the time had perished.
Everywhere, desolation. The provisional toll of the violent earthquake that hit a region south-west of the tourist city of Marrakech in Morocco on Friday has risen to 2,497 dead and 2,476 injured, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday (September 11th). A previous report provided on Sunday reported 2,122 deaths.
>> Morocco: why the earthquake toll is so high and why it risks getting higher
In the area of the High Atlas, all the testimonies are unanimous: entire villages were reduced to a heap of rubble with this earthquake of magnitude 7 according to the Moroccan Center for Scientific and Technical Research (6.8 according to the American seismological). It is, to date, the most powerful to have ever been measured in Morocco.
Agadir shaved from the map
In the past, the kingdom has, in fact, been shaken by more or less violent earthquakes for centuries. As early as September 1522, a magnitude 7 earthquake caused at least 500 deaths in Fez.
Then, in the 18th century, in 1731, Agadir was reduced to ruins in 1731, before the disaster of November 1, 1755, when the Lisbon earthquake – and the tsunami that followed – devastated the entire Atlantic coast of the country. , as historian Fabrice d’Almeida points out, on franceinfo. ” Each time, the monarchy tried to reform itself to avoid disasters. After an earthquake in 1909, the State decided to move towards modern technologies: in 1937, the first seismograph was installed in Morocco. It is he who will record the greatest catastrophe which will take place in Morocco in the 20th century, in the city of Agadir“, says the historian.
It was then 11:40 p.m. on February 29, 1960: dozens of buildings in the coastal city were shaken for about fifteen seconds by an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale. They collapsed almost instantly on thousands of residents, trapped in their homes. As in Lisbon, 205 years before, a tidal wave destroyed the city by 60 to 90% in places. Results: more than 12,000 people died and 25,000 were injured.
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“A Dead City”
Among the victims, in addition to civilians caught in their sleep, three of the four military companies stationed in the city were crushed by the earthquake, further complicating the organization of relief.
The Paris Inter radio correspondent, then based in Rabat, then described on the air a ” ghost town” : ” The city appears to have been bombarded when seen from the plane, as I was able to do this morning aboard the royal plane. The real drama is on the ground and each house is cracked, chipped, cracked. The windows were shattered. Buildings whose silhouette could be reassuring up there when seen from an airplane are now nothing more than worrying masses. They are empty hulks and some threaten to collapse. We can estimate that around 70% of the population is affected, affected, injured or sometimes dead. he then explains on the airwaves.
>> News from History: Morocco facing its earthquakes
Since this disaster, several other tremors have shaken Morocco, such as in Al Hoceïma, on the Mediterranean coast, in 1994, then in 2004 (magnitude 6.4) and 2016.
” Morocco is one of the countries where we do not wonder if there will be earthquakes, but rather when they will occur.“, thus slips Philippe Vernant, teacher-researcher at the University of Montpellier and specialist in active tectonics at AFP. And to specify: ” Unfortunately, nothing can be predicted. We try to estimate recurrence periods based on the different magnitudes of earthquakes; but afterwards the behavior can be chaotic, with two strong earthquakes over a short period then for a very long time without anything“.