Kinematics and deformation of the southern Red Sea region from GPS observations

Viltres, Renier; Jónsson, Sigurjón; Ruch, J.; Doubre, Cécile; Reilinger, Robert; Floyd, Michael; Ogubazghi, Ghebrebrhan

doi:10.1093/gji/ggaa109

Cited by 30 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…(2017), which include only 3 stations on each plate. The motion of the Danakil, Sinai, and Anatolian microplates were constrained by 8 (Viltres et al., 2020), 7 (Hamiel & Piatibratova, 2019), and 11 (Gomez et al., 2020) GNSS stations, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Present‐Day Motion of the Arabian Plate

et al. 2022

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The present‐day motions in and around the Arabian plate involve a broad spectrum of tectonic processes including plate subduction, continental collision, seafloor spreading, intraplate magmatism, and continental transform faulting. Therefore, good constraints on the relative plate rates and directions, and on possible intraplate deformation, are crucial to assess the seismic hazard at the boundaries of the Arabian plate and areas within it. Here we combine GNSS‐derived velocities from 168 stations located on the Arabian plate with a regional kinematic block model to provide updated estimates of the present‐day motion and internal deformation of the plate. A single Euler pole at 50.93 ± 0.15°N, 353.91 ± 0.25°E with a rotation rate of 0.524 ± 0.001°/Ma explains well almost all the GNSS station velocities relative to the ITRF14 reference frame, confirming the large‐scale rigidity of the plate. Internal strain rates at the plate‐wide scale (∼0.4 nanostrain/yr) fall within the limits for stable plate interiors, indicating that differential motions are compensated for internally, which further supports the coherent rigid motion of the Arabian plate at present. At a smaller scale, however, we identified several areas within the plate that accommodate strain rates of up to ∼8 nanostrain/yr. Anthropogenic activity and possible subsurface magmatic activity near the western margin of the Arabian plate are likely responsible for the observed local internal deformation. Put together, our results show a remarkable level of stability for the Arabian lithosphere, which can withstand the long‐term load forces associated with active continental collision in the northeast and breakup to the southwest with minimal internal deformation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Present‐Day Motion of the Arabian Plate

et al. 2022

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“…The Bada region of northern Afar (Figure 6A) was hit by three strong swarms in 1967, 1968 and 1993, and the area north of Bada was affected recurrently by earthquake swarms in 1838, 1884, and 1920-21, destroying parts of Massawa city. This area at the northern end of the northern Afar axis has been seismically active with repeating swarms over the past two centuries, leading to questions on how the rift axis extends northward through the Gulf of Zula (Viltres et al, 2020) and connects to a transform zone from Massawa region to the central rift trough in the southern Hofstetter andBeyth, 2003, andGlobal Centroid Moment Tensor project, GCMT, www.globalcmt.org, Dziewonski et al, 1981;Ekström et al, 2012) related to swarms in the SAGA region from 1960 to 2017 as sourced from the ISC Bulletin. Extension axes are shown by black segments (normal faulting) and pink segments (strike-slip faulting).…”

Section: Recurrent Swarm Activity Highlights Spreading Centers In the Saga Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, the synchronous increase in activity across multiple segments of the rift might also be explained by regional stress triggering in which positive Coulomb stress changes induced by magma intrusion at one rift branch and associated earthquake swarms trigger magmatic and tectonic activity at the other rift branches that were near failure. However, there is little evidence for static stress triggering between distant (∼350 km) rifting events and episodes in the region (Viltres et al, 2018). Such stress triggering has been observed at smaller scales within Afar, i.e., where several small swarms have been detected at the periphery of large dike intrusions in Afar in 2005, 2007 and 2009, synchronously with the Dabbahu rifting episode.…”

Section: Swarm and Volcanic Activity Increase During The Mid 2000s To Mid 2010smentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing 60 years of Earthquake Swarms in the Southern Red Sea, Afar and the Gulf of Aden

et al. 2021

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Earthquake swarms occur sporadically at divergent plate boundaries but their recurrence over multiple decades and relation to magmatic spreading activity remain poorly understood. Here we study more than 100 earthquake swarms over a 60-year period in the southern Red Sea, Afar, and Gulf of Aden region. We first compiled an earthquake-swarm catalogue by integrating reexamined global and local earthquake catalogues from 1960 to 2017. This yielded 134 earthquake swarms that mainly cluster in 19 different areas in the study region, showing that in most cases swarms recur every few decades in the same area. The swarms exhibit a range of earthquake magnitudes and often include multiple M3 to M5 events with some swarms having occasional larger earthquakes over M6, primarily in southern Afar. Many of the earthquake swarms were clearly associated with rifting events, consisting of magmatic intrusions, surface faulting, and in some cases volcanic eruptions. Together, the swarms suggest that extension at these divergent plate boundaries occurs episodically along <100 km long segments, some of which were previously unrecognized. Within the study region, the Gulf of Aden shows the most frequent swarm activity, followed by Afar and then the southern Red Sea. The results show that the three areas were subject to an increase of earthquake-swarm activity from 2003 to 2013 in the form of three rifting episodes and at least seven volcanic eruptions. We interpret that the most likely controls on temporal variations in earthquake swarm activity are either temporal variations in magma supply, or rifting-induced stress change that trigger clusters of swarms.

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“…Since the Quaternary, extension migrated to a series of en-echelon magmatic rift segments where the majority of magmatic activity and faulting now occur (e.g., Hayward & Ebinger, 1996;Keir et al, 2009). Recent GPS measurements show that, in Northern Afar, the ∼N50°E-directed extension increases southeastward from ∼6.7 mm/year at ∼N15° to ∼16 mm/year at ∼N12° (Figure 1a) (Viltres et al, 2020). Two main magmatic segments accommodate extension in Northern Afar: The Erta Ale (EA) and Tat Ali (TA) segments (Figure 1).…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate‐Boundary Kinematics of the Afrera Linkage Zone (Afar) From InSAR and Seismicity

et al. 2021

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During continental rupture, the plate-boundary zone is segmented along its length to form discrete rift segments which accommodate plate divergence through tectonic and magmatic activity (Hayward & Ebinger, 1996;Keir et al., 2009;Manighetti et al., 2001). As plate divergence proceed to continental break-up, adjacent rift segments grow and interact through linkage zones which may develop into oceanic transform faults (e.g.

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Kinematics and deformation of the southern Red Sea region from GPS observations

Cited by 30 publications

References 105 publications

Present‐Day Motion of the Arabian Plate

Present‐Day Motion of the Arabian Plate

Revealing 60 years of Earthquake Swarms in the Southern Red Sea, Afar and the Gulf of Aden

Plate‐Boundary Kinematics of the Afrera Linkage Zone (Afar) From InSAR and Seismicity

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