The 2023 Morocco Earthquake: Crustal deformation detected by ALOS-2 data

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Released: Sep. 15, 2023, update: Sep. 28, 2023Japanese version of this page

Summary

M6.8 (USGS) earthquake occurred in Morocco on September 8, 2023 (UTC). To measure the crustal deformation caused by this earthquake, we applied interferometric analysis using ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 data. The analysis clearly revealed the spatial distribution of crustal deformation.

Deformation up to 20 cm is observed around the epicenter.
Observed deformation is consistent with that caused by a north dipping reverse fault with ENE-WSW strike, as revealed by seismic analysis.

*Concentrated twin crustal deformations in the bottom part of the figure seem to be irrevalent to earthquake.

InSAR pair

Fig. #	Date	Time (UTC)	Flight Dir.	Beam Dir.	Obs. Mode *1	Incidence Angle (around epicenter)	Bperp
1,2	2023-01-05 2023-09-14	00:34	Asc.	Right	F-F (10m)	41.2°	64m

*1 F: Stripmap (Fine)
(cf. ALOS-2 Project / PALSAR-2 (JAXA))

SAR Interferograms

2023-09-14INSAR画像

Fig. 1 SAR interferogram [PNG: 1MB]
Epicenter is from USGS.Fault lines are based on Sébrier et al. (2006).

2023-09-14INSAR画像

Fig. 2 SAR interferogram (Unwrapped) [PNG: 1MB]
Epicenter is from USGS.Fault lines are based on Sébrier et al. (2006).

range

Fig. 3 range

Analysis by GSI from ALOS-2 data of JAXA.
These results were obtained through the activity of the SAR analysis working group of the Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.

The 2023 Morocco Earthquake

Date-Time	Sep. 8, 2023, 22:11(UTC)
Hypocenter Location	31.073°N, 8.407°W, Depth:18.0km (USGS, as of Sep. 15, 2023)
Magnitude	M=6.8 (USGS, as of Sep. 15, 2023)

Satellite

ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2) launched by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on May 24, 2014

Copyrights and Credits

Contact

Geography and Crustal Dynamics Research Center
Crustal Deformation Research
MUNEKANE Hiroshi: Head of Division