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IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy
(S) - IASPEI - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's
Interior
JSS002 Poster presentation 1813
Tsunami modelling along Morocco atlantic coast preliminary results
Prof. Maria Ana Baptista
DEC ISEL. CGUL, IDL IASPEI
R . Omira 1,2, J. M. Miranda,1, P.M.M. Soares1,3, J.Luis, 4, E. A.Toto,2
Morocco, by its geographical situation with two marine limits, lengthens along the Atlantic coast in the
west, and along the Mediterranean coast in north, is the country of Western Africa more exposed to the
risk of the tsunamis coming from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In high populated coastal areas
between Rabat and Casablanca the tsunami risk is almost unknown. Data on the 1755.11.01,
transoceanic tsunami, report strong devastation from Tangier to Agadir. In the last century the
1969.02.28 Horseshoe fault (HSF) earthquake Mw 8.0 generated a small tsunami, with maximum
amplitude recorded at Casablanca. Recently, another event stroke Morocco and southern Iberia but its
moderate magnitude (Mw=6.1) prevented the triggering of a significant tsunami. In this study we
present the preliminary results tsunami propagation and inundation results for Rabat and Casablanca
areas. Modelling was performed with COMCOT code, from Cornell University. The simulation domain
covers the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean offshore Morocco and the Gulf of Cadiz, from the most
prone tsunami generation area. Three nested grid layers of different resolution (0.008, 0.002 and
0.0005) are incorporated to obtain a good description of bathymetric and topographic effects near
shore. Results of the numerical simulations are discussed in terms of wave heights, flow depth and
maximum velocity. This study was funded by projects FCT/TESS and NEAREST STREP 37110 UE.
Keywords: tsunami, morocco, hazard