Abstract
The geodynamics at the epicenter of the destructive Mw = 6.8 earthquake that occurred in Morocco on September 8, 2023, was studied by the Stacking-InSAR method applied to 801 interferograms based on the Sentinel-1 synthetic aperure radar (SAR) data. Over the period from January 2019 to September 2023, local subsidence of the surface with an average velocity of 1.5 cm/yr was discovered. The maximum velocity obtained in 2023 reached 24 cm/yr in the areas with a developed melioration system located above aquifers. Based on the integrated analysis of variations in the water equivalent thickness measured from the 2000–2023 satellite gravimetric data and the amount of precipitation, the surface subsidence was found to be due to a significant withdrawal of water from aquifers. Assuming similar shapes of isoseists of earthquakes with close epicenters, the isoseists of the earthquakes that occurred in 2014 and 2023 were compared. The data obtained made it possible to identify the expansion of isoseist contours toward the descending surface areas of the 2023 earthquake. This process, along with the tectonic movements of the Eurasian and Nubian plates, is believed to have increased the stress–strain state between two aquifers and finally caused the Mw = 6.8 earthquake in Morocco on September 8, 2023.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
D. Cheloni et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 51 (2), e2023GL106992 (2024).
V. O. Mikhailov et al., Dokl. Earth Sci. 511 (1), 571–578 (2023).
A. N. Ovsyuchenko et al., Dokl. Earth Sci. 511 (1), 566–571 (2023).
V. G. Bondur et al., Dokl. Earth Sci. 499 (2), 648–654 (2021).
V. G. Bondur, T. N. Chimitdorzhiev, and A. V. Dmitriev, Izv., Atmos. Oceanic Phys. 59 (9), 1001–1008 (2023).
L. Zhang et al., Remote Sens. 13 (18), 3662 (2021).
A. Billi et al., Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 601, 117906 (2023).
GRACE Tellus. https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/. Accessed October 16, 2023.
K. Hogenson et al., Hybrid Pluggable Processing Pipeline (HyP3): a Cloud-Native Infrastructure for Generic Processing of SAR Data (Zenodo, 2020).
Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service for InSAR (GACOS) (2024). http://www.gacos.net.
C. Yu et al., J. Geophys. Res.: Solid Earth 123 (10), 9202–9222 (2018).
GRACE(-FO) Data Analysis Tool | Data. GRACE Tellus. https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/data/data-analysis-tool. Accessed October 16, 2023.
R. Styron and M. Pagani, Earthquake Spectra. SAGE Publ. Ltd. STM 36 (1_suppl), 160–180 (2020).
BGR-WHYMAP. https://www.whymap.org/whymap/EN/Home/whymap_node.html. Accessed January 19, 2024.
Earthquake in Morocco September 8, 2023 (M 6.8). https://omdoki.nextgis.com/resource/1095/display. Accessed January 19, 2024.
M. Hssaisoune et al., Geosciences 10 (2), 81 (2020).
ERA5-Land Monthly Aggregated – ECMWF Climate Reanalysis. https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/ECMWF_ERA5_LAND_MONTHLY_AGGR. Accessed January 19, 2024.
A. V. Kiselev et al., Sovrem. Probl. Distantsionnogo Zondirovaniya Zemli Kosmosa 13 (6), 13–28 (2016).
ShakeMap 4 Manual – ShakeMap Documentation. https://usgs.github.io/shakemap/. Accessed January 19, 2024.
N. Rhoujjati et al., J. Hydrol.: Region. Stud. 49, 101520 (2023).
V. B. Smirnov et al., Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 54 (4), 632–641 (2018).
V. G. Bondur et al., Dokl. Earth Sci. 430 (1), 141–147 (2010).
V. G. Bondur et al., Dokl. Earth Sci. 414 (4), 666–669 (2007).
V. G. Bondur et al., Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 52 (1), 117–129 (2016).
V. G. Bondur, I. A. Garagash, and M. B. Gokhberg, Dokl. Earth Sci. 466 (2), 183–187 (2016).
Funding
This study was carried out under state assignments of the AEROCOSMOS Research Institute for Aerospace Monitoring (No. 124021200003-1) and the Institute of Physical Materials Science, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The authors of this work declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Translated by E. Maslennikova
Publisher’s Note.
Pleiades Publishing remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bondur, V.G., Chimitdorzhiev, T.N. & Dmitriev, A.V. The Induced Seismicity Effect in Morocco Caused by a Reduced Aquifers Volume according to Stacking-InSAR Method and Gravimetric Data. Dokl. Earth Sc. 517, 1269–1275 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X24601809
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1028334X24601809