Present-day seismicity,stress field and crustal deformation of Egypt |
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| Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Ahmed?BadawyEmail author |
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| Institution: | (1) National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG), 11421-Helwan, Cairo, Egypt |
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| Abstract: | In this study we investigate present-day seismicity and crustal deformation of Egypt based on a comprehensive earthquake catalog
from 1900 to 2004 by focal mechanism stress inversion and by recent GPS observations. Spatial distribution of earthquake epicenters
indicates that Egypt has been suffered from both interplate and intraplate earthquakes. Most earthquake activity (more than
70%) has been concentrated in northern Egypt along the geologically documented borders of Sinai subplate (northern Red Sea
and its two branches Suez rift and Aqaba–Dead Sea transform). The majority of inland earthquake focal mechanisms in Egypt
are normal with strike-slip component or strike-slip faulting events. Only a small minority, namely four events, exhibits
reverse faulting. The inversion method of Gephart and Forsyth (1984) was applied to calculate the orientation of the principle
stress axes and the shape of the stress tensor. The best fitting tensor in Egypt shows homogeneity stress field. The tension
stress regime is dominant in northern Egypt. The stress directions are well resolved by the 95% confidence limits, the relative
stress magnitude has a value of about 0.3. However, along southern Egypt the strike-slip regime is dominant. The shape factor
(R-value) is 0.5, which means that the deviatoric components of σ1 and σ3 are of the same magnitude, but of opposite signs. The average horizontal velocity of GPS stations in Egypt is 5.15± 1.1 mm/year
in mostly NNW direction. The results of deformation analysis indicate that the northern Egypt is deformed more than the southern
part. Only the Egyptian-Mediterranean coastal–Nile Delta zone dominates as a compression deformation area. However, an extensional
deformation has been observed throughout the rest of country. This means that the relative motion of African plate with respect
to both Eurasian and Arabian has highly controlled the deformation processes in Egypt. |
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| Keywords: | seismicity focal mechanisms stress inversion GPS crustal deformation |
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