Abdel-Fattah, A. K.

The stereographic projection of P-wave first motions for the 3 August 1993 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake, its largest aftershock (16 h 33 min), and for the 22 November 1995 earthquake were constructed using the polarity readings of regional and teleseismic stations. The focal mechanism solutions of the 3 August 1993 mainshock and its largest aftershock represent a normal faulting mechanism with some left lateral strike slip component. The nodal planes selected as the fault imply high similarity in strike and dip. They are related to a local fault striking NW-SE and dipping to the SW. The selected fault planes are in good agreement with the aftershock distribution. For the main shock of the 22 November 1995, the fault plane solution displays the same mechanism (normal faulting with left lateral strike slip component) with a plane striking N-S and dipping to the west. The fault plane is greatly conformable with the direction of the regional tectonics and also with the aftershock distribution. The main trend of the extension stress pattern is in a NE-SW direction, corresponding to the rifting direction of the Gulf of Suez and may be related to the paleostress along the Gulf of Suez and Aqaba during the Middle to Late Miocene.

The rupture process of a moderate earthquake (M 4.9)on 28th January 1999 was analyzed using velocity records at local distances less than 80 km.The characterization of the rupture process was obtained from studying aftershocks distribution,azimuthal variations of Relative Source Time Functions (RSTFs),and a set of spatio-temporal slip models.RSTFs were retrieved by deconvolution of small aftershock records from those of the mainshock.In addition,velocity P -wave records of the respective event were inverted to recover slip distribution on the fault plane using the records of aftershocks as Empirical Green Functions (EGFs).The waveform inversion was adopted using three EGFs.In the inversion,the rupture propagation velocity was fixed and assumed to be eight-tenths of the local shear wave velocity.The total seismic moment was estimated to range from 0.011 E +18 Nm (Mw =4.6) to 0.017 E +18 Nm (Mw =4.8).The hypocentral distribution of the aftershocks,azimuthal variations of RSTFs, and the set of slip distribution models were exhibited bilateral rupture propagation along the strike and dip of the fault plane.The presence of two to three high slip patches on the fault plane suggested that a complex rupture pattern is detectable for a moderate size earthquake.However,the so-called nucleation phase was invisible in the present analysis.