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Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

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The 1755 ‘‘Meknes’’ earthquake (Morocco): field data and


geodynamic implications
G. Morattia,*, L. Piccardia, G. Vannuccib, M.E. Belardinellic, M. Dahmanid,
A. Bendkikd, M. Chenakebd
a
C.N.R—Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Sezione di Firenze, Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
b
INGV—Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, V.le Berti-Pichat 8, 40127 Bologna, Italy
c
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Settore di Geofisica, V.le Berti-Pichat 8, 40127 Bologna, Italy
d
Ministère de l’Energie et des Mines, Direction de la Géologie, B.P. 6208, Rabat-Institut, Morocco

Abstract
The source of the famous 1 November, 1755 ‘‘Lisbon’’ earthquake has been constrained to be an up to
200 km long structure in the offshore west of Cabo de S. Vincente. The magnitude of this earthquake was
estimated in the range of 8.5–9.4. The stress regime argued for this shock would have been characterised by
an around NNW–SSE-oriented compression. Less well studied is the successive ‘‘Meknes’’ earthquake,
which occurred a few days later in Morocco (27 November), and was erroneously confused by the Eur-
opean contemporary reports with a strong aftershock, occurred on 18 November, of the main seismic
sequence of the 1 November earthquake. The Meknes earthquake had destructive effects in the region of
Meknes and Fes and along the E–W trending Rides Prérifaines, the main frontal thrust of the Rif. His-
torical data indicate a macroseismic field closed around the towns of Meknes and Fes.
Our structural–geological fieldwork and remote sensing analysis in the epicentral area of the Meknes
earthquake, along the local major recent faults, indicate that the E–W-oriented thrusts of the Rides Pré-
rifaines are active. Through a re-examination of historical sources compared with field work and air photo
interpretation, we could individuate the traces of coseismic surface faulting of the 1755 Meknes earthquake
in two areas of the Rides Prérifaines, both part of the local thrust front: the Jebel Zerhoun area and the
Jebel Zalagh area. Tectonic data on the Quaternary stress fields derived from our fieldwork and from lit-
erature, consistently with the revised focal mechanisms in the region, indicate active shortening oriented
NNW–SSE to N–S in northern Morocco. The data collected seem therefore to indicate the thrusts of the
Rides Prérifaines, located within the macroseismic area of the Meknes earthquake, as the most probable
seismic source of that event. As such, the activation of the thrusts of the Rides Prérifaines would be consistent
with this stress regime, which in turn would be similar to the stress field maintained as responsible for the
1 November, 1755 Lisbon earthquake. We also attempted an estimate of the change due to the Lisbon

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-055-210670; fax: +39-055-290312.


E-mail address: gmoratti@geo.unifi.it (G. Moratti).

0264-3707/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0264-3707(03)00052-8
306 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

earthquake of the Coulomb Failure Function (CFF) on the Meknes structure, as identified in this paper, in
order to evaluate if the Meknes earthquake could have been induced by the 1 November, 1755 Lisbon earth-
quake, or a local distinct earthquake. Our modelling suggests that the latter hypothesis is the more likely one.
# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The 1 November, 1755 ‘‘Lisbon’’ earthquake, accompanied by a large tsunami wave over a
large part of the Atlantic coast, has been the most devastating event affecting the Atlantic and
Mediterranean area and one of the strongest in history. Its magnitude has been estimated in the
range of 8.5–9.4 (Machado, 1966; López Arroyo and Udı́as, 1972; Abe, 1979; Sousa Moreira,
1983; Martins and Mendes Victor, 1990; Baptista et al., 1998a, b). Its source has been constrained
to be a structure, up to 200 km long, in the offshore west of Cabo de S. Vincente (Fig. 1), and two
main hypotheses have been put forward to localise the epicentral area of the 1 November earth-
quake: (1) the area of Marques de Pombal (MP in Fig. 1), where active reverse faults have been
identified by seismic investigation (Zitellini et al., 1999; 2001a; Gràcia et al., 2001a, b); (2) the
area of Gorringe Bank (GB in Fig. 1), where compressive deformations distributed over a 200-
330 Km wide zone have been recognised (Hayward et al., 1999). This latter was also the epicentre
of the 28 February 1969 earthquake (Mw=7.5–8.1). The shock of 1969, for the similarities of the
two macroseismic fields (Fig. 1), has been assumed as an analogue of the 1 November 1755
earthquake (Levret, 1991 and references therein).
A few days after the main Lisbon earthquake a strong shock affected Morocco. Historical data
indicate a macroseismic field closed around the towns of Meknes and Fes (Levret, 1991; Fig. 1).
The most destructive effects were in the town of Meknes, from where it is referred to as the
‘‘Meknes’’ earthquake. European and Arab sources disagree about the date of the occurrence of
this latter event. While contemporaneous Arab sources report unanimously 27 November for this
occurrence (SFERN, 1985; Levret, 1991 and references therein; El Mrabet Azaroula, 1991),
European historical sources report only about damages in Morocco due to an aftershock, which
occurred on 18 November for which the same epicentre of the 1 November main shock was esti-
mated (Pereira de Sousa, 1919–1928).
In this paper, we analyse the active faults of the Meknes area aiming at the identification of the
possible seismogenic structure of that earthquake and discussing its relationships with the tec-
tonics of the area. We also perform a computation of the stress field change induced by the Lis-
bon earthquake, in order to evaluate its possible influences in the Meknes area. This paper should
also provide a better characterisation of the seismotectonic and geodynamic behaviour of the area
in relation with the western Eurasia–Africa plate boundary.

2. Seismotectonics of the Alboran Sea and Gibraltar Arc

The western sector of the Eurasia–Africa plate boundary, running along the transform dextral
Gloria Fault System, which relies the Azores triple junction to the Gibraltar Arc, is clearly
defined by both bathymetry and clustering of seismicity (e.g. Udı́as et al., 1976; Grimison and
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 307

Fig. 1. Comparison between the effects of the two earthquakes of 1 November 1755 and 28 February 1969, redrawn
after Levret (1991). Black dotted isoseismals (MSK Scale) show the macroseismic field of the 1 November event (from
Sousa Moreira, 1983 for Portugal, and Martı́nez Solares et al., 1979, for Spain), while black continuous isoseismals
(MSK Scale) show the effects of the 28 February 1969 earthquake (from Mezcua, 1982 and Ben Sari, 1978). Epicentre
of the 28 February 1969 earthquake is indicated (big black star). For the Morocco region, isoseismal lines of the 1
November 1755 earthquake are extrapolated (MSK values indicated in bold italic) from the isoseismals of the 28
February 1969 event. Values near the Moroccan cities represent the MSK and MCS intensity (this latter in brackets) of
the 28 February 1969 event (see Levret, 1991 and references therein). The big dotted line indicates the damaged area
(MSK value=VIII, in bold) of the 18 or 27 November 1755, Meknes earthquake (small black star). GB=Gorringe
Bank; MP=Marques de Pombal.
308 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

Chen, 1986; 1988; Buforn et al., 1988a; Hayward et al., 1999). In the Gibraltar Arc and Alboran
Sea area, the plate boundary is less well defined and seismicity spreads over a larger area
(McKenzie, 1972; Hatzfeld and Frogneux, 1981; Buforn et al., 1988b, 1995; Udı́as and Buforn,
1991) (Fig. 2 a and b). The Alboran Basin represents the internal area of both the Moroccan Rif
and the Betic Cordillera, which are parts, to the south and to the north, respectively, of the
Gibraltar Arc (Fig. 3 a).
Radial thrusting of the Gibraltar Arc chains was contemporaneous with the formation of the
Alboran Basin (e.g. Andrieux et al., 1971; Platt and Vissers, 1989), whose sediments rest on a
continental thinned crust, underlain by anomalously low velocity upper mantle (Vp=7.6–7.9 s 1;
Banda et al., 1983). Several hypotheses have been advanced to relate the onshore radial thrusting
of the Gibraltar Arc with driving mechanisms in the Alboran Basin. Andrieux et al. (1971) con-
sidered the Alboran as a rigid microplate interposed between, and colliding with, Africa and
Europe. Dewey (1988), Platt and Vissers (1989) and Doblas and Oyarzun (1989) interpreted the
Alboran Basin as the result of extensional collapse of a thickened continental lithosphere. A
rollback of a subduction zone retreating from east to west and opening the Alboran, interpreted
as a back-arc basin by Frizon de Lamotte et al. (1991), is maintained either to stop at Gibraltar
(Lonergan and White, 1997) or to continue into the Atlantic Ocean (Royden, 1993). Compressive
structures affecting the Alboran sedimentary fillings and seismological evidence, instead, led to
the different hypothesis that crustal thinning could be referred either to a pre-Miocene rifting or
to crustal delamination (Morley, 1992; Morel and Meghraoui, 1996; Seber et al., 1996; Chalouan
et al., 1997; Mezcua and Rueda, 1997).
Present day convergence between African and European plates appears to be N–S to NNW–
SSE-directed, as indicated by the compression axis derived from available focal mechanisms (e.g.
Buforn et al., 1988a, b, 1995; Medina and Cherkaoui, 1992; Hatzfeld et al., 1993; Medina, 1995;
Gomez et al., 1996; Meghraoui et al., 1996; Mueller et al., 1997) and from neotectonic studies
(Groupe de Recherche Néotectonique de l’Arc de Gibraltar, 1977; Aı̈t Brahim and Chotin, 1984;
Morel, 1989; Galindo Zaldı́var et al., 1993; Bernini et al., 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000; Faure-Muret
and Morel, 1994).
For a better characterisation of the regional seismotectonics and geodynamics, we investigated
the local seismicity both collecting and analysing the spatial distribution of instrumental earth-
quakes (ISC, 2002), and the focal solutions available in literature (see Fig. 2 for references), using
the ‘‘EMMA’’ database proposed by Vannucci and Gasperini (in press) and Gasperini and
Vannucci (in press).
We also performed an analysis of P and T deformation axes obtained from the compute of the
seismic moment sum (Kostrov, 1974), applying a regular latitude and longitude grid with mesh of
one degree and using both the available published data and the on-line Harvard CMT (2002)
(Dziewonski et al., 1981), INGV (2002) (Pondrelli et al., 2002) and ETH (Braunmiller et al.,
2002) catalogs. This analysis was obtained using the best solution calculated for earthquakes with
more than one focal solution (Vannucci and Gasperini, in press). Fig. 2a shows the main seismi-
city of the western Eurasia–Africa plate boundary. Clustering of seismicity occurs along NNE–
SSW to NE–SW-oriented zones in northern Morocco and in the Alboran Basin (e. g. Dillon et
al., 1980; Hatzfeld et al., 1993; Medina, 1995) and in correspondence of the external thrusts out-
lining the Gibraltar Arc (Fig. 2a and b), thus suggesting activity of these structures. Moment
tensor sum solutions indicate that transpressive and transcurrent mechanisms are predominant
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 309

Fig. 2. (a) Instrumental seismicity (red open circle) for the Iberian–Maghrebian area (more than 24 000 events starting
from 1910), from ISC (2002). Focal solutions (best double couple) related to the moment tensor sum (Kostrov, 1974)
obtained within a regular latitude and longitude grid with mesh of one degree. Different size of the symbols is directly
related with the magnitude of the considered events. (b) Focal mechanisms in the western Eurasia–Africa area from
different on-line catalogues (Harvard CMT, 2002; ETH, 2002; INGV, 2002) and from available published data. Dif-
ferent colours of focal solutions correspond to different authors and catalogues (key references are indicated at the
top). Data available in literature are recomputed with the methodology proposed by Vannucci and Gasperini (in press)
(from ETOPO-2 global dataset), the size of the focal solutions is directly related with the magnitude of the event.
Topography plot of the epicentres and focal mechanisms are obtained using GMT mapping tool (Wessel and Smith,
1991). Topography elevation was taken from ETOPO-2 global dataset.
310 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

and the maximum compressive axis of the regional stress field shows in general orientations
between NW–SE and N–S (Fig. 2a). This is in good agreement with the regional geodynamics as
a whole and is consistent with models inferred from numerical simulation (Jiménez-Munt et al.,
2001) and with all the other geological and geophysical stress data. Instrumental epicentres
appear to be concentrated in particular between 35 and 37 N, and westward along the Gloria
Fault System (Figs. 2a and 3a). The moment tensor sum is in agreement with the dextral strike-
slip character of the Gloria Fault System.

3. The Rif-Atlas System

The Rif-Atlas System of Morocco consists of three Alpine chains delineating a big Z-shaped
structure. The NE–SW-trending Middle Atlas relies the E–W-oriented Rif and High Atlas chains,
respectively developed to the north and to the south of it (Fig. 3a and b).
The E–W-trending High Atlas bounds to the south the Moroccan Meseta, the Middle Atlas
and the Oran Meseta. Its central and eastern sectors constituted the southern branch of the
Triassic/Early Jurassic Atlasic basin, aborted and inverted in Late Jurassic–Cretaceous times in
favour of the development of the Atlantic Ocean. The western sector is maintained to have been
of Atlantic pertinence (e.g. Michard, 1976; Mattauer et al., 1977). Present-day N–S-directed
compression affecting this chain is clearly expressed by E–W-trending active thrusts along its
northern and southern borders (Dutour and Ferrandini, 1985; Froitzheim et al., 1988; Jacob-
shagen et al., 1988; Zouine et al., 1996; Piccardi et al., 2001).
The NE–SW-trending intracontinental Middle Atlas chain developed from Late Jurassic-Cre-
taceous times (e. g. Choubert and Faure-Muret, 1962; Mattauer et al., 1977; du Dresnay, 1988) in
consequence of the positive inversion of the extensional Triassic/Early Jurassic Atlasic basin
(Mattauer et al., 1977; Laville and Piqué, 1991). Recent data allowed several workers to infer that
the Middle Atlas underwent and still is undergoing sinistral transpression along NE–SW-trending
faults under a roughly N–S-directed compression (e.g. Jacobshagen et al., 1988; Fedan et al.,
1989; Boccaletti et al., 1990; Bernini et al., 1996, 1999, 2000; Gomez et al., 1996). Such a kine-
matics is coherent with the features that emerged from our analysis of moment tensor sum
(Fig. 2a). Together with the Moroccan Meseta, the Middle Atlas constitutes the foreland of the
Rif.
The arcuated fold and thrust belt of the Rif is subdivided into three distinct domains (Wildi,
1983), from N to S (Fig. 3b): (1) the Internal Zone, consisting of tectonic units made of crystalline
basement and its Palaeozoic and Mesozoic-Tertiary thrust sheet cover; (2) the domain of the
Flysch Units, deposited in a deep marine environment, locally over an oceanic/transitional crust,
from Jurassic to Burdigalian (Durand-Delga et al., 2000); (3) the External Zone, consisting of
tectonic units of the African continental margin (Fig. 3b). This chain underwent polyphase
deformation during Alpine orogenesis, from Cretaceous to Late Neogene, with the deformation
front migrating southwards, towards the external zones (Wildi, 1983; Chalouan et al., 2001).
Major sinistral transpressive faults, the Jehba and Nekor faults, and the northern prosecution of
the Middle Atlas Shear Zone, affect the chain and constitute lateral ramps of the major thrust
fronts (Tejera de Leon, 1997; Leblanc and Olivier, 1984; Hernandez et al., 1987; Bernini et al.,
1996, 1999, 2000). The main external front of the chain is given, in the Meknes–Fes area, by the
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 311

Fig. 3. (a) Structural scheme of the western Eurasia–Africa area. ‘‘a’’, ‘‘b’’ and ‘‘c’’ indicate location and strike of the
structures used for modelling the change of the Coulomb Failure Function (CFF) in the Meknes area. (b) Structural
Map of Morocco, redrawn after Carte Géologique du Maroc (1985). (c) Structural map of the Rides Prérifaines,
redrawn after Suter (1980b) and Bendkik (2002). These ridges are bounded by south-vergent, E–W-oriented active
thrusts. Stars indicate the six areas where damages and coseismic effects of the 1755 Meknes earthquake have been
indicated in historical sources. Dashed line encloses the damaged area.
312 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

E–W-trending Rides Prérifaines. These are a series of ridges composed of a Jurassic mainly car-
bonate succession of Atlasic pertinence, overlain by Middle Miocene marls of the Nappe Pré-
rifaine (Faugères and Vidal, 1974; Michard, 1976; Suter, 1980a, b; Wildi, 1983). The Rides
Prérifaines are bounded to the south by E–W-trending, south-verging thrusts which affect Late
Miocene-Quaternary sediments of the Meknes Basin (e.g. Michard, 1976; Suter, 1980b; Wildi,
1983; Morley, 1988) (Fig. 3c). These structures are part of the Rifian frontal thrust, which forms
the onshore southern branch of the Gibraltar Arc, and belong to the Miocene-Quaternary geo-
dynamic context in which the Gibraltar Arc reached its arcuate shape and the Alboran Basin
formed (e.g. Andrieux et al., 1971; Platt and Vissers, 1989; Boccaletti et al., 1990; Morley, 1992;
Chalouan et al., 1997; Michard et al., 2002). The Meknes Basin is located just south of the Rides
Prérifaines. Together with the Gharb Basin to the west and with the Guercif Basin, to the east,
the Meknes Basin constitutes the Rifian foredeep (Feinberg, 1986) (Fig. 3b and c).

4. The 1755 Meknes earthquake and effects

The 1755 Meknes earthquake macroseimic area is located in correspondence of the Rides Pré-
rifaines and of the northern part of the Meknes Basin (Levret, 1991) (Figs. 1 and 3c).
We performed a field survey in the Rif-Atlas system aimed at the identification of the major
active faults. The main thrust fronts of the Rides Prérifaines and of the High Atlas show clear
evidence of activity and tend to thrust onto the NE–SW-oriented Middle Atlas (Piccardi et al.,
2001) (Fig. 3a and b). Structural–geological field evidence and remote sensing analysis indicate
the E–W-oriented thrusts of the Rides Prérifaines just north of Meknes and Fes as the most active
structures of the Meknes area. The Rides Prérifaines are a well known seismic area and the few
available focal mechanisms are mainly indicative of a N–S compression (Fig. 2b). Active thermal
sources are located along the two Rides north of Meknes and Fes, and travertine is presently in
deposition in the overlap zone between them (Fig. 3c), in a structural position common to many
travertine sources (Hancock et al., 1999).
A specific aim of our survey in the epicentral area of the 1755 Meknes earthquake was the
identification of possible coseismic geologic effects related to that event which are clearly descri-
bed in historical reports, and to analyse their relationships with the tectonic setting of the area.
Historically, the Meknes earthquake is well known. Historical sources clearly indicate that both
Meknes and Fes were stroken. The earthquake caused relevant damages in the Roman archae-
ological site of Volubilis (Chatelain, 1968). The shock triggered a large landslide which destroyed
the town of Moulay Idriss, just a few kilometres to the south of Volubilis (SFERN, 1985; Fig. 3c).
Finally, relevant ground ruptures were indicated at Jebel Zerhoun and Jebel Zalagh, in the Rides
Prérifaines (SFERN, 1985). These data provide at least six close localities, which depict a loca-
lised damaged area distinct from the general macroseismic field of the Lisbon earthquake (Fig. 1).
This suggests that the Meknes earthquake was a local event.
We found geological evidence of surface faulting due where the contemporary reports of the
earthquake (SFERN, 1985) indicated relevant ground ruptures: at Jebel Zerhoun and at Jebel
Zalagh, north of Meknes and Fes, respectively (Fig. 3c). The location of the ruptures at Jebel
Zerhoun is extremely well constrained in the documents, with reference to the 15th km from
Meknes along the main contemporary road. Through air photo interpretation and field work, we
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 313

could individuate traces of recent ground breaks exactly at the indicated distance from Meknes
along the ancient ‘‘Sultan’’ road (Fig. 4 a). The location of these ruptures, their appearance and
their relationships with the active main thrust of the Rif front, of which they represent secondary
splays, point to these ruptures as being the ones described in the historical reports (Fig. 4b and c).
In the Jebel Zalagh area, instead, no exact historical indication of the rupture location is given
(SFERN, 1985). Jebel Zalagh is bordered by two almost E–W-trending faults both to the south

Fig. 4. Jebel Zerhoun area, where ground ruptures were described after the 1755 Meknes earthquake. (a) Aerial photo
showing the track of the ‘‘Sultan’’ road, which was the main road in 1755. (b) Detail of Fig. 4a: the coseimic ruptures
of the 1755 Meknes earthquake are still visible and correspond to a splay fault of the E–W-trending front of the Rides
Prérifaines (white thrust). (c) View from the east of the surface expression of the ruptures of Fig. 4b.
314 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

Fig. 5. Jebel Zalagh area, north of Fes. (a) Morphological evidence of the fault bounding Jebel Zalagh to the north
(white line). (b) Detail of Fig. 5a: the fresh and continuous fault scarp indicates recent activity of this fault (white
arrows). Fault–slip data on minor fault planes related to the main structure indicate a NNE–SSW direction of short-
ening. (c) At the base of the fault scarp (white arrow), a fissure cutting recent slope debris and filled by more recent
deposits, provides evidence of recent surface faulting.
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 315

and to the north (Suter, 1980a; Morley, 1988; Fig. 3c). Our study evidenced that both faults are
active, although the clearest morphostructural evidence of tectonic activity is shown by the E–W-
oriented fault along the northern margin, marked by a continuous cumulative fault scarp (Fig. 5a
and b). The fault plane cuts recent slope debris and appears to have been recently reactivated,
originating an open fissure in the deposits successively filled by more recent debris (Fig. 5c).
Because of these evidences, we consider this fault to be the most probable seat of the ground
breaks described in historical reports. Also in this case, the rupture would have occurred on a
secondary splay fault related to the main thrust of the Rides Prérifaines.
The ruptures individuated both at Jebel Zerhoun and Jebel Zalagh may therefore be assumed to
correspond to the coseismic surface faulting of the 1755 Meknes earthquake. As such, our data
would indicate rupture of the E–W-oriented thrusts of the Rides Prérifaines, located within the
macroseismic area, as the most probable cause of the earthquake.
Activation of the thrusts of the Rides Prérifaines is moreover consistent with the mainly N–S-
oriented compressive stress regime indicated by focal mechanisms (Medina and Cherkaoui, 1992;
Hatzfeld et al., 1993; Medina, 1995; Gomez et al., 1996; Meghraoui et al., 1996) and neotectonic
data at a regional scale (Aı̈t Brahim and Chotin, 1984; Morel, 1989; Bernini et al., 1994, 1996,
1999, 2000; Faure-Muret and Morel, 1994).
The same stress regime is also indicated by the most recent earthquakes which stroke the area
on September 27, 2000 and June 28, 2001, both with Mb=4.6 and hypocentral depths of 12 and
27 Km, respectively (ETH, 2002). Their focal mechanisms (the green ones in Fig. 2b) indicate a
roughly N–S compression. The 2000 earthquake, localised just north of Meknes, shows a reverse
focal mechanism, coherent with the activation of the E–W-trending thrusts of the Rides Pré-
rifaines. The 2001 earthquake stroke near the coast, where the buried Rifian frontal thrust tends
to become arcuate, so that the focal mechanism is coherent with a dextral component of slip on it.

5. Stress field variation of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake

The European historical sources report only a destructive earthquake after the Lisbon main
shock. According to Levret (1991) this event was ‘‘an aftershock. . .on November 18 at 10 p.m.’’
that ‘‘was felt in both Portugal and Morocco’’. We localised the Meknes source in Morocco so that
we cannot regard it as an aftershock of the Lisbon earthquake in a classical sense. However the
same Meknes earthquake could be considered as an after-effect of the Lisbon earthquake in the
sense that it could be a consequence of the 1 November event. Our study shows that the Meknes
earthquake occurred under the same stress regime as the Lisbon one, activating a fault system
related to the same geodynamic structure, the Gibraltar Arc. Given the relative short time elapsed
between the two events, and the fact that the Meknes area was significantly shaken by the 1
November shock (Fig. 1), there is a possibility that the two events were in some way related. We
investigate this hypothesis in the following of this section, by modelling the static stress changes
in the Meknes area due to the 1 November 1755 Lisbon earthquake.
Static triggering is based on the influence that a seismic event (the ‘‘causing’’ one) can have on a
subsequent event (the ‘‘induced’’ one) by means of the static stress change induced in the sur-
roundings by the causing shock. Numerical modelling shows that static triggering is favoured
when the change of the Coulomb Failure Function (CFF) due to a certain earthquake on another
316 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

fault results positive (e.g. Nostro et al., 1997). In order to test static triggering it is necessary to
know the geometry and location of the faults involved in the interaction. Static coseismic stress
changes can be computed using a dislocation model. We used a dislocation model in an elastic
half-space (e.g. Okada, 1992), with standard assumptions concerning the medium that is poisso-
nian with a rigidity modulus of 30 GPa. The major uncertainties affecting our modelling concern
with the seismogenic source of the Lisbon earthquake, only hypothetically identified in previous
studies. The possible focal mechanism (Baptista et al., 1998b) and the seismic moment of the
event are also uncertain. Since the region where the Lisbon earthquake occurred is a transition
zone between the oceanic and the continental crust (e.g. Jiménez-Munt et al., 2001), the assump-
tion of an elastic homogeneous medium represents a strong approximation in the present study.
The long duration of the 1 November earthquake (8–10 min, Levret, 1991) was probably due to
the superimposition of three separate shocks (Reeves, 2002). The seismic source of the 1
November earthquake could have been then a complex one, with activation or triggering of more
than one fault segment, each one generating an event with large magnitude (up to 8.0). This could
also explain the enormous energy release hypothesised for this event (Machado, 1966; López
Arroyo and Udı́as, 1972; Abe, 1979; Sousa Moreira, 1983; Martins and Mendes Victor, 1990;
Baptista et al., 1998a, b). Such a large energy release (8.5–9.4 of magnitude) if associated with a
simple source, would imply a fault responsible for the shock with an enormous size (between 350
and 1200 km), according to Wells and Coppersmith (1994). Such a structure does not find cor-
respondence in the region.
Even though more seismogenic sources probably concurred to the damage scenario, due to the
lack of further information we modelled the Lisbon earthquake as a single event on a rectangular
fault plane with uniform slip. We tried three different locations: (1) a fault plane with an about
N–S strike located between the Gorringe Bank and the Iberian coast (Marques de Pombal area)
as suggested by Baptista et al. (1998b), Zitellini et al. (1999; 2001a, b) and Gràcia et al. (2003)
(‘‘a’’ in Fig. 3a); (2) the Gorringe Bank (‘‘b’’ in Fig. 3a), seat of the 28 February 1969 earthquake
and assumed as an analogue of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake (Levret, 1991 and references therein),
for which we at first used location and focal mechanism (=70 , =44 , l=112 ) given by Gri-
mison and Chen (1988); (3) a tentative fault plane with WNW–ESE strike, located south-east of
the Gorringe Bank, in correspondence of a reverse-transpressive structure bounding the external
Gibraltar Arc to the south (‘‘c’’ in Fig. 3a).
We computed the change of CFF considering various possible hypocentral depths in Morocco
(from 3 to 21 km), applied to the possible seismogenic source of the Meknes earthquake (270
strike, 35 dip and 90 rake). We performed many simulations varying some parameters of all the
modelled sources of the Lisbon earthquake. We varied, for instance, the magnitude (from 7.1 to
9.4), the dip (between 15 and 90 ), the rake (among 90–135 ), the apparent friction coefficient
(between 0.2 and 0.7; e.g. Nostro et al., 1997) and the depth of the upper edge of the fault (1, 5
and 10 km). When we varied the magnitude of the modelled source of the Lisbon earthquake, we
changed the fault dimension (and then the slip) extrapolating the Wells and Coppersmith (1994)
scaling relations to the cases here considered.
Within the limits of our model assumptions, our results show that no significant CFF change
seems to affect the Meknes region in all the model sources assumed for the 1 November earth-
quake. The reason may be mainly due to the large distance between the Meknes seismogenic area
and the locations of the hypothesised sources of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. We emphasize that
G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322 317

also the third location here considered for the Lisbon earthquake (‘‘c’’ in Fig. 3a) revealed to be
not enough close to the Meknes area to obtain static triggering.
Anyway, other triggering mechanisms can be envisaged in general, such as dynamic triggering,
i.e. induction of an event based on the passage of the seismic waves. This mechanism is not to be
discarded a priori on the basis of the distance between the two events, since the coseismic
dynamic stresses attenuate slower with distance than coseismic static stresses. Moreover the
isoseismals related to the 1969 event (Fig. 1), suggest that the Meknes area may be within the
range of influence of dynamic effects induced by a source located as that of the 1969 earthquake.
However it is difficult to explain a triggering delay of the order of tens of days, as the
period separating the Lisbon and the Meknes earthquakes, relating the triggering effect only to
the passage of seismic wave in a given region. Generally, on the contrary, dynamic triggering
is regarded as an almost instantaneous process (e.g. Brodsky et al., 2000; Belardinelli et al,
2003).

6. Discussion and conclusion

On 27 November 1755 a strong earthquake stroke the area of Meknes, in front of the E–W-
trending Rides Prérifaines, the local external frontal thrust of the Rif, the southern branch of the
Gibraltar Arc.
European historical sources confused the 1755 Meknes earthquake with an aftershock, occur-
red on November 18, of the main Lisbon event, while the Arab sources clearly date it to 27
November. Through a re-evaluation of the historical documents, compared with field analysis
and air photo interpretation, we surveyed the sites where geological coseismic effects of the
Meknes earthquake were described. Apparently the surface rupture did not occur directly along
the surface trace of the main thrusts of the Rides, the probable seismogenic structure, but along
splay faults close to it. Coseismic ground ruptures along active faults at Jebel Zerhoun and Jebel
Zalagh point to the E–W-trending thrusts of the Rides Prérifaines as the most likely seismic
source. Activation of these thrusts, located within the elongated macroseismic area, is coherent
with the roughly N–S-oriented stress regime acting in the region, indicated by both focal
mechanisms and neotectonic data. The 27 September 2000 earthquake (Mb=4.6), with epicenter
north of Meknes, shows as well pure thrusting along E–W-oriented structures (green focal
mechanism in Fig. 2b), so that also this one could have been originated by slip on active thrusts
within the Rif.
To constrain the regional seismotectonic setting we also analysed the distribution of seismicity
and the moment tensor sum (see Kostrov, 1974) based on available focal mechanisms. This ana-
lysis allowed us to identify the average P and T axes of deformation in the Alboran–Gibraltar Arc
area, where strike–slip to transpressive focal mechanisms appear to prevail.
We also tried to evaluate the possible triggering of the Meknes earthquake by the Lisbon 1
November earthquake. The CFF change models performed, necessarily affected by heavy uncer-
tainties, indicate that no clear static stress variation would have been induced in the Meknes area
by the rupture of any of the different seismic sources hypothesised for the Lisbon earthquake.
Our study therefore supports the hypothesis that the 1755 was a local event, as indicated also by
the macroseismic field closed around Meknes and Fes (Levret, 1991).
318 G. Moratti et al. / Journal of Geodynamics 36 (2003) 305–322

The active tectonics of the area has been poorly investigated up to now, so that seismogenic
structures and associated hazard are not well defined yet. The recognition of this historical
earthquake as a local shock is of paramount importance as it provides new insight on the seismic
hazard of a region surrounding historically and economically important cities like Meknes and
Fes, and world famous archaeological sites like Volubilis.

Acknowledgements

Authors wish to thank Carlos Sanz de Galdeano, Ahmed Chalouan and an anonymous referee
for critical review of the manuscript. The work was supported by CNR (Italy) and CNRST
(Morocco) funds in the framework of the bilateral project ‘‘Structural analysis, active tectonics
and fluid geochemistry along the Middle Atlas Shear Zone’’ (Italian responsible Giovanna
Moratti, Moroccan responsible Mohammed Dahmani).

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