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Article
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Marrakech–Taroudant, Morocco Mw 6.8 Earthquake on 8 September 2023: Evaluating its Impact through Strong Ground Motion Data Processing
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George Papazafeiropoulos 1,*, Abderrahim Boulanouar 2, Vagelis Plevris 3, Ahmed Zian 2
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National Technical University of Athens; gpapazafeiropoulos@yahoo.gr
Abdelmalek Essaadi University; aboulanouar1@gmail.com (A.B.), a.zian@uae.ac.ma (A.Z.)
3 Qatar University; vplevris@qu.edu.qa
* Correspondence: gpapazafeiropoulos@yahoo.gr
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Abstract: On September 8, 2023 an Mw 6.8 earthquake struck the Marrakech–Taroudant region of
Morocco known as the Al Houze earthquake. At least 2,960 people were killed and 5,674 were injured, while the region was subject to significant damage to buildings and infrastructure. Nearly
60,000 homes were damaged in the quake, approximately one-third of which were completely destroyed. This study, after a review of the tectonics of the region, attempts to evaluate and possibly
provide a link between certain characteristics of the earthquake acceleration and velocity time histories and the observed damage on buildings and other infrastructure. For this purpose, a suite of
time histories are processed using OpenSeismoMatlab software, to extract various peak and cumulative seismic measures. Elastic, constant ductility and rigid plastic sliding response spectra for
what?, various types of spectral intensity and incremental dynamic analysis curves are calculated
and interpreted by taking into account the most prevalent dynamic characteristics of the buildings
in the region. In addition, pulse decomposition procedures are followed to find out if the presence
of pulses into the time histories contributed to the destructiveness of the earthquake. Comparison
is made between the above earthquake characteristics to the design guidelines of the currently effective seismic codes in Morocco. The analysis of this study indicates that the structures were subjected to loads significantly exceeding their normal strength levels, whereas improvement of the
Moroccan seismic building code RPS 2011 is necessary, especially areas with high earthquake risk.
Keywords: Marrakech–Taroudant earthquake; Morocco; building; RPS2011; dynamic characteristics
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Modelling 2023, 4, Firstpage–Lastpage. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx
www.mdpi.com/journal/modelling