Storm surge and tsunami deposits along the Moroccan coasts: state of the art and future perspectives

Abstract The Moroccan coast is occasionally confronted with marine submersion events caused by storm surges and tsunamis. The Moroccan historical archives recorded some of these events, such as the storm surge of 2014 CE and the tsunami of 1755 CE. The latter remains the most destructive event the country has ever faced, with major human and economic losses recorded mainly between the two cities of Tangier and Safi. The privileged way to prevent any hazard related to these events is to study their past occurrences and consequences. However, historical records are often very scarce to determine their return periods and evaluate their intensities. Accordingly, the scientific community increasingly uses sedimentary archives from coastal environments, since they offer a viable alternative to historical archives. Several studies using this approach have been conducted on the Moroccan coast in recent years; however, until now, there has been no review dealing with these studies, which is the main objective of this paper. The present review shows that most of the Moroccan sites containing marine submersion deposits are located along the Atlantic coast. The Mediterranean coast remain poorly studied despite the presence of tsunami and storm surge risks. The review draws attention also to the absence of chronological data for most of the marine submersion deposits recognized up to now along the Moroccan coasts, which is a major issue that prevents the determination of the return period of these events.