Abstract
Although there is no known seismic source directly under the Arabian Platform, there are numerous sources nearby that can cause damaging seismic shaking in Arabian Gulf cities. The Arabian Gulf is underlain by deep sedimentary structure, nearly 10 km deep, and is adjacent to one of the most seismically active intra-continental fold-and-thrust belts on Earth, the Zagros Mountains. Broadband records in the western shore of the Gulf from earthquakes in the Zagros Mountains display long duration surface waves due to dispersion and possible conversions at basement-sediment interfaces. While shorter periods (<1 s) are attenuated due to the large distance, long period energy persists. Consequently large earthquakes in the Zagros can result in felt and possibly damaging ground motions at long-periods (1–10 s). Such ground motions are of concern for large engineered structures, such as tall buildings and long bridges with resonant periods in the same band (1–10 s). The boundaries of the seismogenic source zones are the results in the inter-agreement of seismological and geological parameters with the higher priority given to the spatial distribution of epicenters due to statistical needs in statistical analysis. Seismogenic source zones are composed of systems of faults or lineaments or rift systems whose boundaries do not traverse generally other tectonic units. Some of the seismogenic source zones are relatively large due to scarcity of earthquakes in the Arabian Platform. From these considerations, there are twelve (15.12) seismogenic source zones that were identified and delineated. The application of this method is the first of its kind in the Arabian Platform, nevertheless, there are strong indications of accuracy from the results that the modeling is significantly appropriate. The results were generated from an adaptive method from the physically reliable point of view which could also be applied to other areas of seismic concern for its further validation.
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Al-Amri, A.M. (2013). Seismotectonics and seismogenic source zones of the Arabian Platform. In: Al Hosani, K., Roure, F., Ellison, R., Lokier, S. (eds) Lithosphere Dynamics and Sedimentary Basins: The Arabian Plate and Analogues. Frontiers in Earth Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30609-9_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30609-9_15
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