Another look at the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes from the analysis of teleseismic waveforms

In this work we estimated the source process and the source parameters of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes. To investigate the source process of both events, we inverted the teleseismic P- and SH-waveform data using an iterative technique in which the rupture is modeled as a series of point source subevents with varying mechanisms. The main source process of the 1993 event can be explained by two subevents with essentially the same mechanism. These two subevents had different focal depths. The second subevent was about 5 s later than the first one and about 70% of the moment rate released with the second one. The total rupture duration time was about 12 s. Our solution for the 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake indicated that the event consists of three subevents with various fault geometries and about 60% of the moment released by the second subevent. The first subevent occurred at a depth of 13 km, and was followed after 9 s by the second one at a depth of 11 km; the third subevent, at a depth of 9 km occurred 19 s after the second one. The total duration of the earthquake rupture process was about 18.7 s. The obtained mechanisms for the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes are well correlated with the structural setting of the Gulf of Aqaba.     

Shear Wave Velocity Structure of the Sinai Peninsula from Rayleigh Wave Analysis

The lithospheric structure of the Sinai Peninsula is shown by means of nine shear velocity profiles for depths ranging from zero to 50 km, determined from the Rayleigh wave analysis. The traces of 30 earthquakes, which occurred from 1992 to 1999 in and around the study area, have been used to obtain Rayleigh wave dispersion. These earthquakes were registered by a broadband station located in Egypt (KEG station). The dispersion curves were obtained for periods between 3 and 40 s, by digital filtering with a combination of MFT and TVF filtering techniques. After that, all seismic events were grouped in source zones to obtain a dispersion curve for each source-station path. These dispersion curves were inverted according to generalized inversion theory, to obtain shear wave velocity models for each source-station path, which is the main goal of this study. The shear velocity structure obtained for the Sinai Peninsula is shown through the shear velocity distributions with depth. These results agree well with the geology and other geophysical results, previously obtained from seismic and gravity data. The obtained velocity models suggest the existence of lateral and vertical heterogeneity. The shear velocity increases generally with depth for all paths analyzed in the study area. Nevertheless, in some paths a small low velocity channel in the upper or lower crust occurs. Along these profiles, it is found that the crustal structure of the Sinai Peninsula consists of three principal layers: upper crust with a sedimentary layer and lower crust. The upper crust has a sedimentary cover of 2 km thick with an average S-velocity of 2.53 km/s. This upper crust has a variable thickness ranging from 12 to 18 km, with S-wave velocity ranging from 3.24 to 3.69 km/s. The Moho discontinuity is located at a depth of 30 km, which is reflected by a sharp increase in the S-velocity values that jump from 3.70–4.12 to 4.33–4.61 km/s.     

On the relationship between climatic variables and pressure systems over Saudi Arabia in the winter season

The synoptic circulation over Saudi Arabia is complicated and frequently governed by the effect of large-scale pressure systems. In this work, we used NCEP–NCAR global data to illustrate the relationship between climatic variables and the main pressure systems that affect the weather and climate of Saudi Arabia, and also to investigate the influence of these pressure systems on surface air temperature(SAT) and rainfall over the region in the winter season. It was found that there are two primary patterns of pressure that influence the weather and climate of Saudi Arabia. The first occurs in cases of a strengthening Subtropical High(Sub H), a weakening Siberian High(Sib H), a deepening of the Icelandic Low(Ice L), or a weakening of the Sudanese Low(Sud L). During this pattern, the Sub H combines with the Sib H and an obvious increase of sea level pressure(SLP) occurs over southern European, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East. This belt of high pressure prevents interaction between midlatitude and extratropical systems, which leads to a decrease in the SAT,relative humidity(RH) and rainfall over Saudi Arabia. The second pattern occurs in association with a weakening of the Sub H, a strengthening of the Sib H, a weakening of the Ice L, or a deepening of the Sud L. The pattern arising in this case leads to an interaction between two different air masses: the first(cold moist) air mass is associated with the Mediterranean depression travelling from west to east, while the second(warm moist) air mass is associated with the northward oscillation of the Sud L and its inverted V-shape trough. The interaction between these two air masses increases the SAT, RH and the probability of rainfall over Saudi Arabia, especially over the northwest and northeast regions.     

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.     

The October 11, 1999 and November 08, 2006 Beni Suef Earthquakes

Two felt moderate-sized earthquakes with local magnitudes of 4.9 on October 11, 1999 and 4.3 on November 08, 2006 occurred southeast of Beni Suef and Cairo cities. Being well recorded by the digital Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) and some regional broadband stations, they provided us with a unique opportunity to study the tectonic process and present-day stress field acting on the northern part of the Eastern Desert of Egypt. In this study, we analyze the main shocks of these earthquakes and present 15 well recorded aftershocks (0.9 ≤ ML ≤ 3.3) which have small errors on both horizontal and vertical axes. The relocation analysis using the double difference algorithm clearly reveals a NW trending fault for the 1999 earthquake. The spatial distribution of its aftershocks indicates a propagation of rupture from the SW towards the NW along a fault length ~5 km dipping nearly ~40°SW. We also determined the focal mechanisms of the two main shocks by two methods (polarities and amplitudes ratios of P, S_V and S_H and regional waveform inversion). Our results indicate a normal faulting mechanism with a slight shear component for the first event, while pure normal faulting for the second one. The spatial distribution of the 1999 aftershocks sequence along with the retrieved focal mechanism confirmed the NW plane as the true fault plane. While for the 2006 event, the few aftershocks do not reveal any fault geometry; its focal mechanism indicated a pure normal fault nearly trending WNW-ESE that corresponds more likely to the extension of the 1999 earthquake fault. The seismicity distribution between the two earthquake sequences reveals a noticeable gap that may be a site of a future event. The NNE-SSW extensional stress indicated by the mechanisms of these events is in agreement with the regional stress field and the rifting of the northern Red Sea in its northern branches (Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba). The source parameters (seismic moment, moment magnitude, fault radius, stress drop and displacement across the fault) were also estimated and compared based on both the regional waveform inversion and the displacement spectra and interpreted in the context of the tectonic setting. The obtained results imply a reactivation of the pre-exiting NW-SE faults as a result of extensional deformation from the northern Red Sea-Gulf of Suez rifts.     

Gravimetric geoid for Egypt implementing Moho depths and optimal geoid fitting approach

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of implementing the experimentally determined GEMMA Moho depths (GOCE Exploitation for Moho Modeling and Applications), which are partly seismically estimated, in gravimetric geoid computation in Egypt. The window remove-restore technique has been proposed to avoid the double consideration of the topographic-isostatic masses in the neighbourhood of the computational point. The plate loading theory has been used to model the seismically determined Moho depths. A constant density contrast between the lower crust and the upper mantle has been postulated. The tailored geopotential model EGTGM2014 has been used for the long wavelength contributions of the Earth’s gravity field. A comparison with a geoid computed using the EGM2008 and Airy floating hypothesis has been made. For all cases, a gravimetric geoid for Egypt has been computed using Stokes’ integral in the frequency domain by 1-D FFT technique. The computed geoids are fitted to the GPS-levelling derived geoid using an optimum geoid fitting technique for Egypt introduced by the author. The results show that using the seismically determined Moho depths within the plate loading theory and the EGTGM2014 tailored geopotential model gives a geoid with external accuracy of about 16 cm.     

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) $ .     

Dimensional Reduction of Pattern-Based Simulation Using Wavelet Analysis

A pattern-based simulation technique using wavelet analysis is proposed for the simulation (wavesim) of categorical and continuous variables. Patterns are extracted by scanning a training image with a template and then storing them in a pattern database. The dimension reduction of patterns in the pattern database is performed by wavelet decomposition at certain scale and the approximate sub-band is used for pattern database classification. The pattern database classification is performed by the k-means clustering algorithm and classes are represented by a class prototype. For the simulation of categorical variables, the conditional cumulative density function (ccdf) for each class is generated based on the frequency of the individual categories at the central node of the template. During the simulation process, the similarity of the conditioning data event with the class prototypes is measured using the L ₂-norm. When simulating categorical variables, the ccdf of the best matched class is used to draw a pattern from a class. When continuous variables are simulated, a random pattern is drawn from the best matched class. Several examples of conditional and unconditional simulation with two- and three- dimensional data sets show that the spatial continuity of geometric features and shapes is well reproduced. A comparative study with the filtersim algorithm shows that the wavesim performs better than filtersim in all examples. A full-field case study at the Olympic Dam base metals deposit, South Australia, simulates the lithological rock-type units as categorical variables. Results show that the proportions of various rock-type units in the hard data are well reproduced when similar to those in the training image; when rock-type proportions between the training image and hard data differ, the results show a compromise between the two.