Aeromagnetic data over Harrat Lunayyir and surrounding areas,western Saudi Arabia

Harrat Lunayyir is one of the smaller lava fields in western Saudi Arabia that is of current interest due to a dike intrusion episode in 2009, an ongoing swarm of earthquakes and the possible hazard that pose. In addition to seismology, other geophysical data have been used to study the structure of the area, and the available aeromagnetic information is shown and discussed here. The reduced to the pole (RTP) magnetic grid and its enhancements have been used to define some of the main anomalies, and these have been correlated with the known geology, including the Red Sea coastal dike system. There are numerous linear features that are possibly related to the dikes or faulting, but within the area of the harrat, details due to the underlying structure are largely obscured by the magnetic surface lavas. Northeasterly trends in the magnetic data may indicate old zones of weakness that intersect one of the main coastal dikes at the location of the recent seismic activity and surface fissure, suggesting that this is a point of weakness resulting in the volcanism and seismicity that also appears to be largely limited to two of the NE trends. The association of the recent seismicity with a known geological and aeromagnetic feature is important in determining the seismic hazard for the region, especially if the location of future activity can be used to reduce overall uncertainty in the analysis by identifying potential fault sources. Here, the seismicity appears to lie on one of the NNW-trending coastal dikes that have been reactivated recently along a section between two NE-trending older faults.