The High Atlas formed during the reactivation of an ancient rift from the Triassic. The mountain range reaches its highest elevation to the west, in Morocco. These mountains formed from a collision during the Cenozoic. The Atlas Mountains are an intracontinental mountain belt that extends 2,000 km (1,200 mi) from Morocco to Tunisia. A magnitude 7.3 earthquake affecting neighboring Algeria in 1980 killed 2,500 people. In 2004, Al Hoceima was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that killed 628 people and left 926 injured. Most of the seismicity in Morocco is related to movement on that plate boundary, with the greatest seismic hazard in the north of the country close to the boundary. To the east of the Strait of Gibraltar, in the Alboran Sea, the boundary becomes collisional in type. This zone of right-lateral strike-slip becomes transpressional at its eastern end, with the development of large thrust faults. Morocco lies close to the Azores–Gibraltar Transform Fault, which is the boundary between the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Main article: Geology of Morocco Earthquakes M5.5+ (1900–2016) in Mediterranean and North Africa Following the earthquake, many countries offered humanitarian assistance, and Morocco announced a three-day period of national mourning. The World Health Organization estimated about 300,000 people from Marrakesh and the surrounding areas were affected, including 100,000 children. It is the strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake in Morocco, the deadliest in the country since the 1960 Agadir earthquake, and the second-deadliest earthquake of 2023 after the Turkey–Syria earthquake. The earthquake was also felt in Spain, Portugal, and Algeria. Damage was widespread, and historic landmarks in Marrakesh were destroyed. At least 2,946 deaths were reported, with most occurring outside Marrakesh. It occurred as a result of shallow oblique- thrust faulting beneath the mountain range.

The earthquake's epicentre was located 73.4 km (45.6 mi) southwest of Marrakesh, near the town of Ighil and the Oukaïmeden ski resort in the Atlas Mountains. On 8 September 2023 at 23:11 DST (22:11 UTC), an earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.8–6.9 and maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII ( Severe) struck Morocco's Marrakesh–Safi region.

Quake map names