ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Beni Haoua, Algeria, Mw 4.9 earthquake: source parameters, engineering, and seismotectonic implications Khadidja Abbes & Louis Dorbath & Catherine Dorbath & Mohamed Djeddi & Farida Ousadou & Said Maouche & Nassima Benkaci & Abdennasser Slimani & Said Larbes & Djillali Bouziane Received: 28 March 2015 /Accepted: 20 December 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract A moderate Mw 4.9 earthquake struck the Beni Haoua (Algeria) coastal area on April 25, 2012. The mainshock was largely recorded by the accelerograph network of the Centre National de Recherche Appliquée en Génie Parasismique (CGS). The same day the earthquake occurred, eight mobile short period stations were deployed through the epicen- tral area. In this study, we use accelerogram and seis- mogram data recorded by these two networks. We com- bined the focal mechanism built from the first motion of P waves and from waveform inversion, and the distri- bution of aftershocks to well constrain the source pa- rameters. The mainshock is located with a shallow focal depth, ∼9 km, and the focal mechanism shows a nearly pure left lateral strike slip motion, with total seismic moment of 2.8 × 10 16 N.m (M w = 4.9). The aftershocks mainly cluster on a narrow NS strip, starting at the coast up to 3–4 km inland. This cluster, almost vertical, is concentrated between 6 and 10 km depth. The second part of this work concerns the damage distribution and estimated intensity in the epicentral area. The damage distribution is discussed in connection with the observed maximum strong motion. The acceleration response spectrum with 5 % damping of the mainshock and aftershocks give the maximum amplitude in high fre- quency which directly affects the performance of the high-frequency structures. Finally, we tie this earth- quake with the seismotectonic of the region, leading to conclude that it occurred on a N–S transform zone between two major compressional fault zones oriented NE–SW. Keywords Beni Haoua . Coastal earthquake . Relocation . Focal mechanisms . Damage . Spectrum response 1 Introduction On April 25, 2012, a moderate Mw 4.9 earthquake (this study) struck the north-west coastal area of Algeria. This earthquake is called BBeni Haoua earthquake,^ from the town name of the main shaken area. The Beni Haoua earthquake was widely felt along the coastal area. The maximum intensity was estimated at VII (EMS 98). J Seismol DOI 10.1007/s10950-015-9549-1 K. Abbes : N. Benkaci : A. Slimani : S. Larbes : D. Bouziane Centre National de Recherche Appliquée en Génie Parasismique, Rue Kaddour Rahim Prolongée, Hussein Dey, Alger, Algeria L. Dorbath : C. Dorbath Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Université de Strasbourg, Rue René Descartes, F-67084 Strasbourg, Cedex, France K. Abbes (*) : M. Djeddi Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, Bp 32 El Alia, 16111 Bab Ezzouar, Alger, Algeria e-mail: kabbes@cgs-dz.org K. Abbes e-mail: bechekirkhadidja@yahoo.fr F. Ousadou : S. Maouche Centre de Recherche en Astronomie Astrophysique et Géophysique, Route de l’Observatoire Bp 63, Bouzareah, Alger, Algeria