High-resolution imagery of active faulting offshore Al Hoceima, Northern Morocco

Abstract

Two recent destructive earthquakes in 1994 and 2004 near Al Hoceima highlight that the northern Moroccan margin is one of the most seismically active regions of the Western Mediterranean area. Despite onshore geodetic, seismological and tectonic field studies, the onshore–offshore location and extent of the main active faults remain poorly constrained. Offshore Al Hoceima, high-resolution seismic reflection and swath-bathymetry have been recently acquired during the Marlboro-2 cruise. These data at shallow water depth, close to the coast, allow us to describe the location, continuity and geometry of three active faults bounding the offshore Nekor basin. The well-expressed normal-left-lateral onshore Trougout fault can be followed offshore during several kilometers with a N171°E±3° trend. Westward, the Bousekkour–Aghbal normal-left-lateral onshore fault is expressed offshore with a N020°E±4° trending fault. The N030°E±2° Bokkoya fault corresponds to the western boundary of the Plio-Quaternary offshore Nekor basin in the Al Hoceima bay and seems to define an en échelon tectonic pattern with the Bousekkour–Aghbal fault. We propose that these three faults are part of the complex transtensional system between the Nekor fault and the Al-Idrissi fault zone. Our characterization of the offshore expression of active faulting in the Al Hoceima region is consistent with the geometry and nature of the active fault planes deduced from onshore geomorphological and morphotectonic analyses, as well as seismological, geodetic and geodynamic data.