Consequences of the El-Asnam earthquakes: Turbidity currents and slumps on the Algerian margin (Western Mediterranean)

Seismicity due to the compressional motion in North Africa has an important effect on the stability of the sediments on the Algerian continental slope. The 1954 earthquake induced a large turbidity current that cut many telephone cables. Results of the 1980 El-Asnam earthquake on sliding of slope deposits arc not well documented, mainly because there were fewer cables than in the past. Nevertheless in the Bay of Alger, 200 km from the epicentre, a telephone cable was broken by a small turbidity current. This current reached a velocity of about 45 km/h.