- Casablanca, Morocco is located on the Northwestern side of the African continent. Casablanca’s propensity for earthquakes falls into Zone 0. For cyclones, Zone 0. Hailstorms, Zone 1. Extratropical Storms, Zone 0/1. Tornadoes, Zone 1. Finally the highest risk event: Wildfires falling into Zone 2. Casablanca suffers no anomalies during El Nino or La Nina, observed no real change in mean temperature, and observed very little change in precipitation since 1978. All of these natural disaster risks fall into the lower, if not the lowest, sections of each scale. This indicates Morocco as a safe place to live with regards to propensity for major natural disasters
- On 31 March, 2016 at 1938 (UTC), Sinabang, located on the Indonesian archipelago, experienced an earthquake that was a 5 on the Mercalli scale. It happened off the coast at a depth of 38.74km. This caused everyone in the affected area to feel movement. Though it didn’t seem too violent, dishes broke, smaller objects moved and things were spilled. The risk for Casablanca experiencing an earthquake of similar magnitude is pretty small, there’s a history of earthquakes not very far away to the North. Sinabang only has a population of 20,000 whereas Casa has almost 3.5 million packed into a much more urban sprawl. I would assume that the chance for injuries would be much higher based on the population density. The people here haven’t experienced any major natural disasters in recent history and are most likely very complacent in regards to any kind of immediate actions for personal safety.
- My assessment of Casablanca is that it would be extremely vulnerable to a major earthquake. The architecture is obviously not suited to any kind of earthquake whatsoever and would most likely crumble during any major seismological activity. The city’s emergency response is slow at best and traffic would hamper the movement of emergency response vehicles and other first responders, which would only serve to exasperate any casualty causing conditions. There is no type of emergency education or preparation made available to the general populace so there would be mass confusion during anything serious which would also only serve to complicate emergency response.
- To reduce Casablanca’s vulnerability to a major earthquake, there would need to be some sort of push to educate the populace in regards to emergency preparation and appropriate response to perspective disaster scenarios. The city’s government should implement evacuation plans and routes for all of the major neighborhoods and then tailor their first responder’s plans to fit those needs. The best people to perform these actions would include the King, because in this society you’ll never get anything done without his approval first. Then you would have to rely on the heads of the appropriate ministries within the government to implement these changes. Hopefully they would reach out to other places and people with real world experience in dealing with disasters.
Downtown Casablanca, this is just a taste of some of the structural engineering that can be found here.
Honestly, most people here wouldn’t even know to “duck and cover” until the earthquake is over… That would be a great place to start. It could be easily introduced during the early years of students lives.
Taylor,
Hi I’m Katie and you can find my blog post at: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/01/katie-greiner-module-8-natural-hazards/
Your post intrigued me because where you’re from in Morocco! Even though Casablanca isn’t at risk for an earthquake, I thought that you selected a great natural hazard. I like how you stated that if your city was to be hit by a similar magnitude earthquake, it would be much more destructive because Casablanca is unprepared for such a thing. How do you think would be the best way to educate member of the community on the proper way to prepare for an earthquake?
Katie