Geologists have studied one of the most “turbulent” places on the planet

In new work carried out by the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona and the Catalan Institute

research (ICREA), scientists investigated the exactlocation of the boundary between the European and African tectonic plates, located in the Alboran marine region. This is one of the most “turbulent” places on the planet. Geologists have studied the potential for large earthquakes that could cause devastating tsunamis along the coast and could occur along the fault.

Scientists identify complex geometry for the first timeactive fault systems and understand how they have moved over the past five million years. It turned out that this is one of the most important fault systems in the region and that it absorbed much of the deformation caused by the collision of the Eurasian and African plates.

The fault system connecting the European and African plates extends over 300 kilometers / ICM-CSIC.
Photo: ICM-CSIC

Although the geological structure of the interior of the Alboran Seahas been widely studied since the 1970s, until now the data was not precise enough to understand the tectonics of the area. However, the quality of the data and the modern techniques used in this work allowed us to characterize in detail a system of active faults over 300 km in length.

For the study, we usedstate-of-the-art data collection methods aboard the Spanish oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa,” explains ICM-CSIC researcher and ICREA professor Cesar R. Ranero, who was also involved in the study.

Until now, scientists did not know whether there wasThe Alboran Sea has major active faults and is the exact location of the tectonic boundary where the European and African plates collide. This knowledge is key to reassessing the seismic and tsunami risk facing coastal areas of the western Mediterranean.

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