Seismometers to Study Seabed for Proposed Morocco-Spain Tunnel

The only one to respond to the public tender published last August by SECEGSA for the rental with option to purchase of 4 seabed seismometers (OBS) for the campaign of Captain Manuel Catalán Morollón for seismotectonic research in the strait, the company TEKPAM Ingeniería, based in Madrid, was awarded this contract for an amount of 486,420 euros, recalls El Español.

The seismometers will allow observing the natural and artificial seismic profile of the strait. Autonomous, these devices are generally placed along the seabed and can carry out studies at a depth between 1,000 and 5,000 meters. The seismotectonic studies in the Strait of Gibraltar should last 6 to 24 months.

In addition, the public company Ineco is working on the update of the preliminary project of the tunnel, carried out in 2007 by the Spaniard Typsa, the Moroccan Ingema, the Swiss Lombardi and the Italian Geodata. The document should be available by mid-2026 and provide information on the cost of the project, estimated between 5 and 10 billion euros.

38.5 kilometers long, including 27.7 kilometers underwater, the tunnel under the strait should connect Punta Paloma, near Tarifa, to Tangier in Morocco. According to SECEGSA, it "will promote the development of transport networks between Spain and Morocco and create an unprecedented space of cooperation between the European Union and the Maghreb".