Despite a position along the passive margin of Africa, the Moroccan Atlantic coast is under the influence of the tsunami threat from earthquakes triggered along the Nubia-Eurasia plate boundary. Along Tangier, Asilah, Sale and Mazagao’s coasts, tsunami have been described since historic times. The 1755 Lisbon quake triggered a tsunami that struck the shores of Morocco 60 min after the tremor, the waves reaching from 2 to 15 m in amplitude. The coastal sedimentary record, together with other proxies, is now being experienced to discriminate and reconstruct evidence of prehistoric inundation events. Recently, we investigated the southwestern coast of Tangier (Tahaddart estuary) and found out morphologies and sedimentary deposits evidencing a strong energy-flooding event. A combination of sedimentological (grain size, sorting, AMS) and microplaentological analyses combine to provide a primary reconstruction of uprush and backwash phases of tsunami deposition and flow dynamics. This event that we attribute to the 1755 tsunami, left noticeable traces on a hilly dissected topography. In the proximal domain, no deposits were emplaced. The high turbulence of the flow allows a complete erosion of the soil. Landward, the decreasing of the energy induced a strong depositional process. The thick brownish sandy layer deposited contains at the base large angular rip-up clasts of dark soil. Marine origin of the deposits is attested by bioclasts and the presence of benthic and planctonic foraminifera. In the distal domain, the sudden loss of energy, due i) to a reverse slope, and to ii) a flow diffluence resulting from the presence of a pass between two dunes, resulted in an accumulation of a huge amount of unsorted marine bioclasts, rounded pebbles, sub-angular beach rock clasts, remains of microlithic industry, and pieces of pottery displaying blunt breaks. Reaching the proximal dune, beyond an undulating line, still perceptible in the landscape, the flow energy was insufficient to erode the soil, which remained unaffected. Application of the AMS technique to the sediments confirmed that the lower part of the deposits was emplaced by a landward flow spreading N91°-171° (uprush phase to the SE) while the upper part was oriented seaward N280°-325° with a topographical control (backwash phase to the NW). At the very base of the deposit, the first AMS measure gives an uprush direction of N105°. This study concluded that sedimentary and geomorphic insights plead for occurrence of a strong energy marine flooding on the coast South of Tangier in the area of Tahaddart. This high energy flooding that might be consistent with the waves depth provided by the 1755 archives. The height of the dunes affected by wave erosion processes allow to estimate wave heights around 6–8 meters.

The Atlantic Coast of Morocco is prone to tsunami inundation. Therefore, in this region, earthquake-induced tsunami hazard has been intensively investigated leading to the development of a number of coastal inundation models. However, tsunami vulnerability remains not well understood to the same extent as the hazard. In this study, we use high-resolution numerical modeling, detailed field survey and GIS-based multi-criteria analysis to assess the building tsunami vulnerability and its sensitivity to the tide variations. Asilah located in the northwestern Atlantic coast of Morocco, where the impact from the 1755 tsunami is well documented, constitutes the area of this study. To model the source-to-coast tsunami processes we used the COMCOT (Cornell Multi-grid Coupled Tsunami Model) numerical code on a set of bathymetric/topographic grid layers (640 m, 160 m, 40 m and 10 m resolutions) with an initial sea-surface perturbation generated using Okada’s formulae and assuming an instantaneous seabed displacement. The tsunami source models in this study correspond to four 1755-like earthquake scenarios. Results show that Asilah’s built environment is highly vulnerable to the tsunami impact that can range from 1.99 to 2.46 km2 of inundation area, depending on the source and the tidal level considered. The level of building vulnerability decreases considerably when moving away from Asilah’s coastline. Moreover, the variation in the tidal level introduces large change in the modeled tsunami impact and, therefore, affects the level of building vulnerability. Thus, we suggest considering the effect of the tide when simulating tsunami hazard and vulnerability, particularly, in coasts where tidal variations are significant. This study provides hazard and vulnerability maps that can be useful to develop the tsunami awareness of the Moroccan coastal population.

Landslide susceptibility assessment is crucial for land use planning, infrastructure development, and hazard mitigation, particularly in tectonically active regions where lithology and soil characteristics significantly influence slope stability. This study aims to evaluate landslide susceptibility in the Agadir Ida-Ou-Tanane province, a tectonically active area, using a hierarchical multicriteria analysis approach. Eight factors influencing landslide occurrence were considered: lithology, slope, LULC, distance to main faults, hypsometry, drainage density, road density, and aspect. Pairwise comparison matrices and expert opinion were employed to determine the relative importance of these factors. The consistency ratio (CR) was calculated to ensure the reliability of the judgments. The resulting landslide susceptibility map reveals a spatial distribution ranging from very low to very high susceptibility zones. Lithology, mainly clay, and limestone formations, emerged as the most influential factor due to the active tectonic context of the study area. The model was validated using observed landslide locations and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) method, yielding a reasonable validation accuracy. The findings indicate that integrating these factors, with a particular emphasis on lithology and soil characteristics, effectively identifies areas prone to landslides, making the resulting map a valuable tool for land use planning and risk management in the Agadir Ida-Ou-Tanane region. This study contributes to understanding landslide susceptibility in tectonically active areas and provides a practical foundation for future research and decision-making. Regularly monitoring and updating the landslide susceptibility map is necessary to ensure its continued relevance and utility for stakeholders.