Current motion and short-term deformations in the Suez–Sinai area from GPS observations

Riguzzi, Federica; Pietrantonio, Grazia; Piersanti, Antonio; Mahmoud, Salah

doi:10.1016/j.jog.2006.01.006

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Because of the lack of data constraining the motion of the Sinai subplate until very recently, regional kinematic models usually ignored the Gulf of Suez and only considered the relative motion between Arabia and Nubia. As a direct consequence the motion along the DST has usually been overestimated by at least 1 mm/a [ Garfunkel and Bartov , 1977; Bosworth and Taviani , 1996; Mahmoud et al , 2005; Riguzzi et al , 2006]. Typically, determination of slip rate based on the analyses of 45 spreading rates from the Red Sea since 3.2 Ma, but ignoring a component of opening across the Gulf of Suez, led to the value of 8.3 ± 2.9 mm/a on the southern DST since the Pliocene [ Chu and Gordon , 1998], which barely overlaps values discussed above, based on direct measurements along the southern DST.…”

Section: Discussion Of the Gps Results With Previous Slip Rate Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, Tapponnier and Armijo [1985] argue for right‐lateral motion based on probably still active E‐W thrusts and folds branching at the northwestern tip of the gulf and N‐S normal fault in western Sinai (features mapped on Figure 9). Recent GPS studies [ Mahmoud et al , 2005; Reilinger et al , 2006; Riguzzi et al , 2006], although on the basis of a similar data set, do not agree with this interpretation. Both Mahmoud et al [2005] and Reilinger et al [2006] adjust local and regional data with an elastic block model and obtain 1–1.5 mm/a of extension and 2 mm/a of left‐lateral slip.…”

Section: Arabia‐sinai‐nubia Relative Motionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Both Mahmoud et al [2005] and Reilinger et al [2006] adjust local and regional data with an elastic block model and obtain 1–1.5 mm/a of extension and 2 mm/a of left‐lateral slip. Riguzzi et al [2006] instead suggest a compressive stress field that they interpret as postseismic relaxation related to 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake (see section 3.3), its aftershocks and a few other earthquakes of magnitude 4 to 6 that occurred in the Gulf of Aqaba and in the Gulf of Suez. These differences in interpretation might be partly due to the fact that the velocities that they determine are in the order of the error ellipses (∼1 mm/a).…”

Section: Arabia‐sinai‐nubia Relative Motionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This left‐lateral strike‐slip fault, about 1000 km long, connects the Red Sea mid‐oceanic ridge to the south to the continental collision zone of Caucasus to the north, where the DST joins with the East Anatolian fault. Other boundaries of the Sinai subplate remain poorly known, although the Gulf of Suez exhibits little deformation and continuous seismic activity, attesting to the existence of a tectonic boundary with Nubia there [ Garfunkel and Bartov , 1977; Bosworth and Taviani , 1996; Salamon et al , 1996, 2003; Mahmoud et al , 2005; Riguzzi et al , 2006].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Slip rate and locking depth from GPS profiles across the southern Dead Sea Transform

et al. 2008

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[1] The Dead Sea Transform is a major strike-slip fault bounding the Arabia plate and the Sinai subplate. On the basis of two GPS campaign measurements, 6 years apart, at 17 sites distributed in Israel and Jordan, complemented by Israeli permanent stations, we compute the present-day deformation across the southern segment of the Dead Sea Transform, the Wadi Araba fault. Elastic locked-fault modeling of fault-parallel velocities provides a slip rate of 4.9 ± 1.4 mm/a and a best fit locking depth of $12 km. This slip rate is slightly higher than previous results based only on Israeli permanent GPS stations data, which are located west of the fault. It is in good agreement with results based on offset geomorphologic and geologic features that average longer periods of time (10 ka to 1 Ma). Projection in ITRF2000 reference frame allows using our data, combined with results published earlier, to further study the kinematics between Arabia, Nubia, and Sinai. Systematic combination of Euler poles available in the literature, in addition to our new set of data, shows that a wide range of Arabia-Sinai pole positions and angular velocities predict reasonable slip rate on the Dead Sea fault. We highlight uncertainties of calculating such poles due to the small size of the blocks and their slow relative motion along a short and almost straight strand of the transform fault, which lead to a large trade-off between pole location and angular velocity.

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Section: Discussion Of the Gps Results With Previous Slip Rate Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Arabia‐sinai‐nubia Relative Motionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Arabia‐sinai‐nubia Relative Motionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Slip rate and locking depth from GPS profiles across the southern Dead Sea Transform

et al. 2008

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“…While some studies speculate that they could be caused by interseismic elastic strain accumulation along the faults bounding the pull-apart basins in the Gulf of Aqaba (e.g., Pietrantonio et al 2016), others point out that they could be due to postseismic motions induced by the 1995 Nuweiba Earthquake (e.g., Piersanti et al 2001;Pe'eri et al 2002;Riguzzi et al 2006;Gomez et al 2020).…”

Section: Faultmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interseismic deformation in the Gulf of Aqaba from GPS measurements

Castro-Perdomo

Viltres

Masson

et al. 2021

Geophysical Journal International

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Summary Although the Dead Sea Transform fault system has been extensively studied in the past, little has been known about the present-day kinematics of its southernmost portion that is offshore in the Gulf of Aqaba. Here we present a new GPS velocity field based on three surveys conducted between 2015 and 2019 at 30 campaign sites, complemented by 11 permanent stations operating near the gulf coast. Interseismic models of strain accumulation indicate a slip rate of $4.9^{+0.9}_{-0.6}~mm/yr$ and a locking depth of $6.8^{+3.5}_{-3.1}~km$ in the gulf’s northern region. Our results further indicate an apparent reduction of the locking depth from the inland portion of the Dead Sea Transform towards its southern junction with the Red Sea rift. Our modelling results reveal a small systematic left-lateral residual motion that we postulate is caused by, at least in part, late postseismic transient motion from the 1995 MW7.2 Nuweiba earthquake. Estimates of the moment accumulation rate on the main faults in the gulf, other than the one that ruptured in 1995, suggest that they might be near the end of their current interseismic period, implying elevated seismic hazard in the gulf area.

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Seismological and GPS constraints on Sinai sub-plate motion along the Suez rift

2008

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This work presents new seismological and Global Positioning System (GPS) resultsaimed at understanding the nature and rate of strain associated with the opening of the Suez rift that separates the Sinai sub-plate from the African plate. The Sinai sub-plate has played a significant role in the tectonic evolution of the northern Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean region. Most small, moderate and large earthquakes occur within belts associated with the geologically documented borders of this sub-plate including the Dead Sea fault (DSF) system in the east, the Cyprian arc (CA) in the north, and the Suez rift (SR) to the southwest. The DSF and CA are well defined; however, the SR is only partially defined. Earthquake foci distribution supports the idea that the SR is seismically active, and this earthquake activity cannot be ignored throughout the kinematics evaluation of northern Red Sea region. The earthquake activity is relatively higher in the southern part of the SR and gradually decreases northward. The high seismicity is mainly attributed to the presence of the Sinai triple junction. Earthquake focal mechanisms in the SR are dominated by oblique normal faulting with left-lateral strike-slip components on NW trending fault planes consistent with regional kinematics. The extensional semi-principal stress axes derived from fault plane solutions are oriented NNE-SSW in good agreement with the current stress field obtained from borehole breakouts along the SR as well as results from GPS surveying. Recent survey-mode GPS observations provide evidence for coherent northerly motion of the Sinai sub-plate that varies between 2 and 5 mm/yr. Moreover, strain analysis indicates that the southern SR is dominated by extension while its northern segment is characterized by constriction, inconsistent with earthquake focal mechanisms and regional tectonic models. The overall northward motion of the Sinai subplate indicates that slab-pull rather than ridge-push is the dominant force controlling regional kinematics. Based on the low rate of extension and lack of oceanic crust, the SR can be considered an incipient plate boundary between the Sinai sub-plate and the Nubian plate. K e y w o r d s : earthquakes, focal mechanisms, GPS, Sinai sub-plate, Suez rift Stud. Geophys. Geod., 52 (2008), 397−412 397

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Current motion and short-term deformations in the Suez–Sinai area from GPS observations

Cited by 9 publications

References 42 publications

Slip rate and locking depth from GPS profiles across the southern Dead Sea Transform

Slip rate and locking depth from GPS profiles across the southern Dead Sea Transform

Interseismic deformation in the Gulf of Aqaba from GPS measurements

Seismological and GPS constraints on Sinai sub-plate motion along the Suez rift

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