Petrogenesis of the Az Zabirah south zone bauxite ore deposits,central northern Saudi Arabia

Arabian Journal of Geosciences - The bauxite ore deposits are mainly found around the Az Zabirah area in the central northern part of Saudi Arabia. The age of the Az Zabirah bauxites was suggested...     

Source mechanisms of the June 2004 Tabuk earthquake sequence, Eastern Red Sea margin, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

A sequence of earthquakes took place in June 2004 approximately 60 km southeast of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. The first felt event (M _W = 3.9) occurred on June 9 and caused minor damage in the epicentral area according to the National Earthquake Information Center and the local reports. Another moderate size event occurred on June 22 (M _W = 5.1) and was followed by a few felt aftershocks without any reported damage. This earthquake sequence caused considerable alarm at Tabuk and highlights the fact that damaging earthquakes can occur in this region away from the major plate boundary in the Red Sea. Being the largest well-recorded event in the area for which the digital and broadband records from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus, and Kuwait are available, it provides an excellent opportunity to study the tectonic process and present day stress field acting on this area. The digital records from these regional networks were used to relocate the largest three events of this sequence. Focal mechanisms were obtained from full waveform inversion and indicate normal faulting mechanisms with two nodal planes oriented NW–SE in parallel to the faults bounding the Tabuk graben and the Red Sea rift axis. These events originated at shallow focal depths of 4–5 km, possibly contributing to the widely felt ground motions. These events offer a unique opportunity to study the active tectonics of the region as well as inform future studies of seismic hazard in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the Gulf of Aqaba, and eastern Egypt.     

Focal mechanism of Badr earthquake, Saudia Arabia of August 27, 2009

Focal mechanism solution of the 27th August 2009 earthquake (mb?=?4.0) that occurred in the Badr area, northwest of Saudi Arabia, approximately 50?km from the Red Sea has been determined from the P-wave first motion polarities. Results show normal faulting mechanism with a negligible component of strike-slip motion with NE T-axis direction. This type of mechanism is common with other earthquakes of the northwestern Saudi Arabia and is considered to present the tectonic movement of the region. The dominantly extensional tectonic regime in this province demonstrates the influence of NE extension in the Red Sea. The strikes of the solution are consistent with those of the main faults near the epicenter. Hypocentral location of this earthquake was carried out using the data from the King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology Seismic Network, Saudi Arabia, and the Egyptian National Seismological Network, Egypt. The horizontal and vertical confidence estimates are 0.5?km for both. The local magnitude, M _L, following the Richter??s original definition was also derived from ten digital three-component broadband seismograms. The average local magnitude determined in this study is 3.8?±?0.17. The estimated seismic moment of this event is $ {3}.{\hbox{7e}} + {14}\,{\hbox{Nm}}\left( {{M_{\rm{W}}} = {3}.{66}\pm 0.0{7}} \right) $ .