<p>The Maghrebian tectonic domain in North Africa is here examined in the light of the recent GPS and seismotectonic results. The region includes the plate boundary in the western Mediterranean previously characterized by transpression and block rotation. The crustal deformation is documented along the Atlas Mountains in terms of the displacement field, with strain partitioning largely controlled by plate motions. The tectonic and seismotectonic analysis is based on our published data on shortening directions of Quaternary faulting and folding compared with present-day seismotectonic characteristics (earthquake moment tensors) of significant seismic events that allow an estimate of local and regional deformation rates in North Africa. Shortening directions oriented NE-SW to NW-SE for the Pliocene and Quaternary, respectively, and the S shape of the Quaternary anticline axes are in agreement with the 2&#176;/Myr to 4&#176;/Myr clockwise rotation obtained from paleomagnetic results on small tectonic blocks in the Tell Atlas. The continuous GPS data and results are obtained from the network in Morocco operative 1999 to 2006, the REGAT network in Algeria since 2007, and the network in Tunisia with data collected from 2014 to 2018. In addition, we add the most recent GPS results in southern Spain and southern Italy. The NW-SE to NNW-SSE 5 &#177;1.5 mm/yr convergence velocity and strain distribution of the Maghrebian tectonic domain is controlled by crustal block tectonics driven by E-W trending right-lateral faulting and NE-SW thrust-related folding. The correlation between the active transpression tectonic structures and velocity field shows a geodynamic framework consistent with the oblique plate convergence of Africa towards Eurasia.&#160;</p>
The city of Kairouan, the capital of the Aghlabides Dynasty (A.D. 800–909), and its surrounding areas were affected by a damaging earthquake on 8 Rajab 245 Hijri (9 October 859). Contemporaneous accounts by local travelers to the Abassides Califat (A.D. 750–1258) and reported by the chroniclers and historians Al Baghdadi (1980) and Al Tabari (A.D. 838–923) (1967) describe the damage to the city and report that 13 villages experienced extensive destruction, leading to a large number of people homeless. In the city of Kairouan, the dome and other holy places of the Great Mosque (minbar and mihrab), houses, fortifications, and bridges all suffered severe damage. The aqueduct that supplied Kairouan with fresh water from the western mountains was badly damaged at a location about 20 km west of the city. New archaeoseismic field investigations of the aqueduct using laser scanning and radiocarbon dating characterize the damaged features. Recent field investigations in the region taking into account the construction types and the inferred damage distribution suggest a macroseismic intensity reaching IX–X Medvedev–Sponhauer–Karnik scale. The seismotectonic context suggests a seismic source along the major Sbiba east–west-trending transpressive fault that includes the Cherichira, Sfaia, and El Baten folding system near Kairouan. An active fault system affecting late Quaternary units made up of ∼30-kilometer-long thrust-related en echelon folds associated with the east–west-trending fault is identified and characterized as seismogenic at a location about 20 km west of Kairouan.
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