Geophysical evidences on reactivation of NE faults in southern Arabian Shield and its tectonic implications
The Eastern flank of the Red sea represents an uplifted Precambrian basement that is known as the
Arabian Shield. Different tectonic events were activated since the collisions among continental fragments
that occurred during the period 630–550 Ma, showing very old NE ophiolite-suture zones, North trend
shear zones, belts, folds, and NW Sinistral fault system known as Najd shear zones. Thus, heterogeneities
and inherited faults are expected in the old basement; however, based on surface observations, NE trend
faults are not described in the Arabian Shield. Despite the inconsistency with the background tectonic
model of the Red Sea rifting, recent seismological studies show that active NE faults may exist in western
Arabian Shield. This study aims to investigate and map the fault system in southern Arabian Shield and
then better understand the tectonic system acting in the region. We provide an analysis that incorporates
gravity, magnetic, and seismological data in Namas area, where earthquake sequence occurred in 2017.
Using the regional-residual separation, filtering and edge detector function techniques, we identified NE
trend inherited faults within the Precambrian basement that might be seismically active, as shown by the
obtained distribution of epicenters and focal mechanism solutions of strike-slip style among the 2017
Namas Earthquake sequence. This result emphasizes the preexistence of a potential local tectonic process
that is incongruous with the regional stress regime
This study aims to synthesize seismic observations with gravity and magnetic data and to suggest a new scenario
on the development of the Harrat Lunayyir (HL) tectonic system on the eastern…
The Eastern flank of the Red sea represents an uplifted Precambrian basement that is known as the
Arabian Shield. Different tectonic events were activated since the collisions among…
Rock and soil sample geochemical analysis was conducted to investigate the extent and causes of soil contamination in the Gulf of Aqaba region in NW Saudi Arabia.