Laurence Dollimore
SPANISH scientists will study seismic activity in the Strait of Gibraltar in a bid to determine the viability of an underwater train connecting Morocco with Spain.
The analysis will be carried out by the Spanish Society of the Study of Fixed Communications through the Strait of Gibraltar SA (Secegsa).
Secegsa plans to install four ocean bottom seismometers along the proposed route, which will be monitored by the Royal Observatory of the Navy (ROA), reports Europa Sur.
Secegsa and the ROA previously studied seismic activity in the strait in 2014.
The results confirmed scarce or non-existent seismic activity in the area, with tremors in the zones closest to the seismometers measuring less than three on the Richter scale.
A contract to buy and install the new seismometers has been put out to tender.
In March this year, Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente told Morocco that his country wanted to re-focus on the ‘strategic’ tunnel project.
After studies carried out last year and this year, the route of the tunnel, if the project goes ahead, will be between Punta Paloma in Tarifa and Punta Malabata, 11km west of Tangier.
The stretch between the two countries measures 42km, and was selected because the maximum depth would be 300m.
The shortest option, connecting Punta Canales and Punta Cires, for example, would see a maximum depth of 900m, making such a project unfeasible.
The plans so far are for two single-track tunnels measuring 7.9m in diameter, with a service gallery of 6m in diameter.
