Using archival documents, press, and published memoirs, reports, fiction, and poetry, this historical examination of responses to the 1960 earthquake in Agadir, Morocco explores French, Moroccan, British, and American responses to the disaster in the context of Cold War and decolonization. Drawing upon the historiography of French decolonization in North Africa as well as work in Disaster Studies, the paper argues that the 1960 earthquake was not only revelatory, exposing social conditions and cultural attitudes kept hidden under normal circumstances, but also was transformative, prompting a reconfiguration of conceptions of the Franco-Moroccan relationship and Moroccan modernity. The paper thus takes up the challenge posed by environmental historians to consider seriously the impact of the environment on human history as we investigate the intersections of tectonic activity with the political and the cultural shifts that shaped modern Morocco. This paper examines both political and literary discourse relating to aspects of catastrophic event including the treatment of survivors, the handling of the dead, and the reconstruction of the city. In many respects, the seismic intrusion into Morocco’s human history in 1960 created a disruption in French hegemony, as alarmed voices from the French right and the Tangier settler press recognized. The resulting anxieties prompted new articulations of France’s relation to its former “protectorate,” and the place of French expatriates in the post-colonial situation. Meanwhile, this event provided an opportunity for the Moroccan monarchy to assert its authority, and opened the door to new forms of American influence. For some, Agadir became a symbol of disorientation and rootlessness; for others, it represented progress, resolve, and opportunity. The paper explores the inscription of such meanings into the city, inscriptions made possible by this terrible environmental catastrophe.