“There is a high possibility of aftershocks of the earthquake occurring [de Marrocos] for months,” believe researchers from the University of Granada and the University of Jaén, cited by the newspaper El Mundo. The region is unstable and the earthquakes seem to come from both the fault to the north and the fault to the south of the Atlas Mountains, being the first earthquake to exceed the magnitude predicted for the region: it reached 6.8 on the Richter scale. when the worst forecasts pointed to between 6.1 and 6.4.
Beneath the Atlas Mountains, and the faults that gave rise to the first earthquake and the aftershocks, is an anomalous, hot, low-density mantle. It is on this mantle that the African tectonic plate slides against the Eurasian plate, like two boards colliding with the movements of water in a pool. The less dense the liquid in which the plates sit, the more they move on the surface.
The African and Eurasian plates have been pushing against each other for millions of years and are responsible for earthquakes in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. These movements cause the Atlas Mountains, which run through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, to rise at a rate of 0.1 millimeters per year and the Strait of Gibraltar to narrow at a rate of four to 25 millimeters per year. If this continues, within 25 million years Morocco will collide with Andalusia and the Strait of Gibraltar will close.
Source: Observadora
