Abstract
The Gulf of Aqaba earthquake occurred on 22/11/1995 with M W = 7.2 and was the largest event to occur along the Dead Sea Transform in at least a century. We determined the source mechanism of the event based on the inversion of the P and SH waveforms observed by teleseismic stations. Our solution consists of 2 similar subevents, where the first exhibits a left-lateral strike-slip motion with a normal component and the second subevent shows an almost pure left-lateral strike-slip motion along the gulf major fault system. The total seismic moment is 7.7 × 1026 dyne-cm, with source duration of 15 seconds. The aftershock sequence was recorded by the regional broad band stations BGIO and JER, of the Israel Seismic Network, and KEG, of the MEDNET regional network for earthquakeswith M W > 4.0. Aftershock epicenter seems to cluster mainly in the Eilat basin and the Aragonese basin. The dominant mechanism indicates left-lateral strike slip motion along the gulf trend, similar to the mainshock.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alamri, A., Schult, F. and Bufe, C., 1991, Seismicity and aeromagnetic features of the Gulf of Aqaba (Elat) region, J. Geophys. Res. 96, 20179–20185.
Baer, G., Shamir, G., Sandwell, D. and Bock, Y., 2002, Crustal deformation during 6 years spanning the Mw 7.2 1995 Nuweiba earthquake, analyzed by interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), Isr. J. Earth Sci. 50, 9–22.
Bartov, Y., Steinitz, G., Eyal, M. and Eyal, Y., 1980, Sinistral movement along the Gulf of Aqaba – Its age and relation to the opening of the Read Sea, Nature 285, 220–221.
Ben-Avraham, Z., 1985, Structural framework of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba), J. Geophys. Res. 90, 703–726.
Ben-Avraham, Z., Almagor, G. and Garfunkel, Z., 1979a, Sediments and structure of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba), Sediment. Geol. 23, 239–267.
Ben-Avraham, Z., Garfunkel, Z., Almagor, G. and Hall, J., 1979b, Continental breakup by a leaky transform: The Gulf of Elat (Aqaba), Science 206, 214–216.
Ben-Avraham, Z. and Tibor, G., 1993, The northern edge of the Gulf of Elat, Tectonophysics 226, 319–331.
Beroza, G. and Zoback, M., 1993, Mechanism diversity of the Loma Prieta aftershocks and the mechanisms of mainshock-aftershock interaction, Science 259, 210–213.
Dickinson, W., 1981, Plate tectonics and the continental margin of California, In: Ernst, E. (ed.), The Geotectonic Development of California, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, pp. 2–28.
Dreger, D. and Helmberger, D., 1993, Determination of source parameters at regional distances with three-component sparse network data, J. Geophys. Res. 98, 8107–8125.
El-Isa, Z., Merghelani, H. and Bazari, M., 1984, The Gulf of Aqaba earthquake swarm of 1983, Geophys. J. Roy. Astr. Soc. 76, 711–722.
Fattah, A., Hesham, H., Ibrahim, E. and El Atta, A., 1997, Fault plane solutions of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes and their tectonic implications, Annali di Geofisica 40, 1555–1564.
Feigin, G. and Shapira, A., 1994, A unified crustal model for calculating travel times of seismic waves across the Israel Seismic Network, IPRG Rep., Z1/567/79(107).
Freund, R., Garfunkel, Z., Zak, I., Goldberg, M., Weissbrod, T. and Derin, B., 1970, The shear along the Dead Sea Rift, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A, 267, 107–130.
Garfunkel, Z., 1981, Internal structure of the Dead Sea leaky transform (rift) in relation to plate kinematics, Tectonophysics 80, 81–108.
Hartzell, S.H. and Heaton, T.H., 1983, Inversion of strong motion and teleseismic waveform data for the fault rupture history of the 1979 Imperial Valley, California, earthquake. Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer. 73, 1553–1584.
Haskell, N., 1964, Total energy and energy spectral density of elastic waves radiation from propagating faults, Bull. Seism. Soc. Amer. 54, 1811–1841.
Hauksson, E., 1994, State of stress from focal mechanisms before and after the 1992 Landers earthquake sequence, Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer. 84, 917–934.
Hill, D., Eaton, J. and Jones, L., 1990, Seismicity, 1980–86. In: Wallace, R. (ed.), The San Andreas Fault System, California, USGS Prof. Pap., 1515, 115–151.
Hofstetter, A., 1996, Determination of body-wave and surface-wave magnitude of regional and teleseismic earthquakes using the broad band station at Bar Giora, IPRG Rep., 567/30/96, 1996.
Kikuchi, M. and Kanamori, H., 1991, Inversion of complex body waves – III, Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer. 81, 2335–2350.
Klinger, Y., Rivera, L., Haessler, H. and Maurin, J.-C., 1999, Active faulting in the gulf of Aqaba: new knowledge from the M W 7.3 earthquake of 22 November 1995, Bull. Seis. Soc. Amer. 89, 1025–1036.
Lawson, C. and Hanson, R., 1974, Solving Least Squares Problems, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 340 pp.
Pinar, A. and Turkelli, N., 1997, Source inversion of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes, Tectonophysics 283, 279–288.
Reasenberg, P. and Oppenheimer, D., 1985, FPFIT, FPPLOT and FPPAGE: Fortran computer programs for calculating and displaying earthquake fault-plane solutions, USGS OpenFile Rep., pp. 85–739.
Salamon, A., Hofstetter, A., Garfunkel, Z. and H. Ron, 1996, Seismicity of Eastern Mediterranean Region: Perspective from the Sinai subplate, Tectonophysics 263, 293–305.
Shamir, G., 1995, The broad band station at Bar Giora, Annual Meeting Isr. Geol. Soc., 98.
Shamir, G., 1996, The November 22, 1995, Nuweiba Earthquake, Gulf of Elat (Aqaba): mechanical analysis, IPRG Rep., 550/87/96.
Shamir, G. and Shapira, A., 1994, Earthquake sequences in the Gulf of Elat, 27th General Assembly IASPEI, Wellington, New Zealand.
Shamir, G., Baer, G. and Hofstetter, A., 2003, 3-D Elastic earthquake modeling based on integrated seismological and InSar data: The M w = 7.2 Nuweiba earthquake, Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba, November 1995, Geophys. J. Int., in press.
Shapira, A., 1988, Magnitude scales for regional earthquakes monitored in Israel. Isr. J. Earth Sci. 37, 17–22.
Wessel, P. and Smith, W., 1991, Free software helps maps and display data, EOS Trans. AGU 72, 441.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hofstetter, A., Thio, H. & Shamir, G. Source mechanism of the 22/11/1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake and its aftershock sequence. Journal of Seismology 7, 99–114 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021206930730
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021206930730