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The 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake (also known as Nuweiba earthquake) occurred on November 22 at 06:15 local time (04:15 UTC) and registered 7.3 on the scale. The epicenter was located in the central segment of the Gulf of Aqaba, the narrow body of water that separates Egypt's Sinai Peninsula from the western border of Saudi Arabia. At least 8 people were killed and 30 were injured in the
meizoseismal area The meizoseismal area in an earthquake is the area of maximum damage. For example, in the Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake of 1886, the meizoseismal area was an area about twenty by thirty miles stretching northeast between Charleston and ...
. The earthquake occurred along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system, an active tectonic plate boundary with seismicity that is characterized by long-running quiescent periods with occasional large and damaging earthquakes, along with intermittent earthquake swarms. It was the strongest tectonic event in the area for many decades and caused injuries, damage, and deaths throughout the Levant and is also thought to have remotely triggered a series of small to moderate earthquakes to the north of the epicenter. In the aftermath of the quake, several field investigations set out to determine the extent of any surface faulting, and the distribution of aftershocks was analyzed.


Tectonic setting

The Gulf of Aqaba is situated along the southern portion of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault zone, a transform fault that forms the barrier between the
African Plate The African Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes much of the continent of Africa (except for its easternmost part) and the adjacent oceanic crust to the west and south. It is bounded by the North American Plate and South American Plat ...
and the
Arabian Plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and collidi ...
(
Arabian-Nubian Shield The Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) is an exposure of Precambrian crystalline rocks on the flanks of the Red Sea. The crystalline rocks are mostly Neoproterozoic in age. Geographically - and from north to south - the ANS includes parts of Israel, Jor ...
). The left-lateral strike-slip fault connects the spreading center that forms the Red Sea in the south with the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey in the north. Although there is much that is not known about the DST, it is accepted that its transform motion began around 12–18 million years ago. Geologist A. M. Quennell, who is credited with first recognizing the movement along the fault in 1958, estimated the total displacement to be while a similar study that included more regional influences resulted in an estimated slip of . That broader
kinematic Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause them to move. Kinematics, as a fie ...
model translates into a slip rate of 8–10 mm/year for the portion of the fault south of the
Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank t ...
. Along the length of the Dead Sea Transform (also known as the Levantine fault) there are several pull-apart basins that have resulted in the formation of the Dead Sea as well as the Gulf of Aqaba. The gulf comprises three distinct pull-apart basins that were formed by individual segments of the fault and are known as (from north to south) the Elat Deep, Aragonese Deep, and the Dakar Deep. At wide, the gulf is relatively narrow, but is up to deep, with the nearby mountains near in height. This difference in elevation suggests that the tectonic activity outpaces the erosive processes in the area, but the background seismicity is infrequent and is marked by earthquake swarms.


Stress triggering

The earthquake was the largest event to occur on along the DST during the 20th century and was felt up to away. The period of aftershocks carried on for over a year with many exceeding magnitude 5. Within several hours of the mainshock a number of small earthquakes occurred along the DST north of the epicenter. Analysis of these earthquakes suggest that they may have been remotely triggered by the Gulf of Aqaba mainshock. Much attention has been given to remotely triggered earthquakes since the
1992 Landers earthquake The 1992 Landers earthquake occurred on Sunday, June 28 with an epicenter near the town of Landers, California, in San Bernardino County. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (''Violent''). Earthquake ...
in southern California. The Dead Sea fault system runs from the Red Sea north to a
triple junction A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can b ...
in south-central Turkey and consists of a main fault and several secondary faults. The fault system is at its widest and deepest in the gulf where a transition from proto-oceanic rifting to
transform fault A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction ...
ing occurs. Moving northward through Lebanon and Syria, where the DST is known as the Yammouneh fault, the trace follows a restraining bend and splits into several strands that include the Serghaya and Rachaya faults. These strands are believed to be the source of the
Near East earthquakes of 1759 The Near East earthquakes of 1759 were a series of devastating earthquakes that shook a large portion of the Levant in October and November of that year. This geographical crossroads in the Eastern Mediterranean were at the time under the rule o ...
. The increased seismic activity following the Aqaba earthquake was detected by the Syrian National Seismic Network (SNSN) and occurred in the area of the Serghaya and Rachaya faults within a area near the restraining bend in southwest Syria. The SNSN consists of twenty vertical-component seismometers, but only nine instruments recorded the swarm. This small area in southwest Syria situated 500 km north of the Gulf of Aqaba mainshock had almost no activity during the two previous months then, beginning two hours and 47 minutes after the event, a
swarm Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...
of 21 small earthquakes occurred. The average background seismicity was .5 to 1 events per day preceding November 22, and during the swarm 21 small earthquakes with a peak magnitude of (Md = 3.7) were recorded in three and a half hours. Randa Mohamad (from the Syrian National Seismological Center) and other seismologists determined that the abrupt increase of activity was due to remote earthquake triggering from the Gulf of Aqaba mainshock, and reported the results of their investigation in a journal published by the
Seismological Society of America The Seismological Society of America (SSA) is an international scientific society devoted to the advancement of seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society. Founded in 1906, the society has members throughout the wor ...
.


Damage

The epicenter was located south of the head of the Gulf of Aqaba where the countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia converge. Damage to buildings occurred in the coastal cities of Eilat, Israel and
Aqaba Aqaba (, also ; ar, العقبة, al-ʿAqaba, al-ʿAgaba, ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Govern ...
, Jordan and a small tsunami was observed by witnesses there. Farther down the coast and closer to the epicenter in the Egyptian city of
Nuweiba Nuweiba (also spelled: Nueiba; ar, نويبع, ) is a coastal town in the eastern part of Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, located on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba. History Historically, it is in the Asian Part of Egypt and the area was inhabited by t ...
several well-built, modern, concrete reinforced homes were completely destroyed. The earthquake's effects were felt as far north as Lebanon and Syria and it was the strongest event in the
Jordan Rift Valley The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley ''Bīrʿāt haYardēn'', ar, الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr),, date=November 2022 also called the Syro-African Depression, is an elongated depression located in modern-day Israel, and Jordan. This g ...
since the
1927 Jericho earthquake The 1927 Jericho earthquake was a devastating event that shook Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan on July 11 at . The epicenter of the earthquake was in the northern area of the Dead Sea. The cities of Jerusalem, Jericho, Ramle, Tiberias, and Na ...
which was centered near the
Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank t ...
. The heaviest damage occurred in the resort town of Eilat where seven hotels and 50 other buildings were damaged, and cracks formed in the sidewalks. Fifteen people were treated there for injuries or
shock Shock may refer to: Common uses Collective noun *Shock, a historic commercial term for a group of 60, see English numerals#Special names * Stook, or shock of grain, stacked sheaves Healthcare * Shock (circulatory), circulatory medical emerge ...
and one man died of a heart attack in Aqaba. In Saudi Arabia two women were reported dead and five deaths were reported in Egypt, with three of them occurring in the gulf resort town of Nuweiba. Eight buildings collapsed in Cairo where, just several years before, the much smaller
1992 Cairo earthquake The 1992 Cairo Earthquake, also known as the 1992 Dahshur earthquake, occurred at 15:09 local time (13:09 UTC) on 12 October, with an epicenter in the Western Desert near Dahshur, Giza, south of Egypt's capital and most populous city, Cairo. Th ...
had a much more destructive impact. One person was killed and two were injured slightly at
Al-Bad', Saudi Arabia Al-Badʿ is a town in Tabuk Region, Saudi Arabia. It is west of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, between Tabuk and the Red Sea Coast. Located at 28° 41' N and 35° 18' E, it lies on the border of the Hejaz, and was in antiquity in Southern Midian. Al-Bad is ...
and damage was reported there as well as the towns of
Al-`Ula Al-'Ula ( ar, ٱلْعُلَا '), is a city of the Medina Region in north-western Saudi Arabia. Historically located on the incense route, the city lies within the Governorate of 'Ula ( ar, مُحَافَظَة ٱلْعُلَا, Muḥāfathat A ...
and
Haql , nickname = , settlement_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Al Haql R01.jpg , imagesize = 300 px , image_caption = Haql seen from the sea, with the Midian Mountains in the ba ...
. In Eilat, Israel, one person died of a heart attack, several people were injured and property damage, power cuts and liquefaction was observed. In the capital Jerusalem, some damage was also observed.


Past events

The Gulf of Aqaba lies between the Sinai Peninsula and the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
, both mostly desert regions with very few permanent settlements. The seismologists who work with historical events gather macroseismic data from written records from cities that may not have been anywhere near the epicentral area. This can result in the mislocation of events when significant damage was reported in a particular location which were not actually where the earthquake occurred. The records of these events have been influenced by the distribution of the population (where the people were) and this has caused difficulty in creating a complete and accurate index of historical events. Several studies in the 80s and 90s indicate that there were two or possibly three large earthquakes in the region in the last 2000 years with magnitudes estimated to be 6.5–7.0 based on macroseismic data. The countries surrounding the gulf have been actively monitoring the seismicity there since the 1980s and have found a consistent low level of activity, but a primary characteristic of the activity is that there are multiple sequences of earthquake swarms. Three swarm events, beginning in the north and ending in the south gulf, have been observed beginning in 1983 when more than 1,000 events occurred over a three-month period near the northeastern boundary of the Elat Deep (in the northern gulf) with the largest three events approaching 5 on the Richter magnitude scale. A less pronounced swarm occurred in 1990 with the largest event reaching 4.3 in the central gulf near the Elat Deep and the Arogonese Deep. The last significant swarm happened in 1993 in the southwestern Arogonese Deep (in the southern gulf) with the highest magnitude of 6.1 and more than 300 larger than magnitude 3 in the following weeks.


Aftermath

During several independent field studies cracks and other ground deformations were observed on both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian sides of the gulf. During a field survey that was done there in 1996, a series of cracks were discovered between 28°35' N and 29°05' N on the Saudi Arabian coast. A field investigation was also done in Egypt in 1996 by seismologist Yann Klinger and others along with the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority. The most dramatic ground ruptures found were north of Nuweiba along a coastal road. The countries surrounding the gulf (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia) operate their own seismic networks and during the months that followed the main event, fourteen temporary and permanent stations recorded thousands of aftershocks. Klinger acquired data on approximately 1,000 aftershocks via the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the agencies of each country. The data was filtered to include only those aftershocks within of the epicenter. Data from four stations from the Institute for Petroleum Research and Geophysics of Israel plus seven stations from Jordan's Natural Resource Authority recorded aftershocks in the epicentral area that met the restriction. It was found that the aftershocks were arranged with a north-south alignment over a length of and that was expected from an earthquake of such magnitude. The group of aftershocks were bunched in two distinct clusters, with one in the north and one further south.


See also

*
List of earthquakes in 1995 This is a list of earthquakes in 1995. Only earthquakes of magnitude 6 or above are included, unless they result in damage or casualties, or are notable for some other reason. All dates are listed according to UTC time. By death toll By ma ...
*
List of earthquakes in Egypt This is a list of earthquakes in Egypt, including earthquakes that either had their epicenter in Egypt, or caused significant damage in Egypt. Seismic hazard Seismic hazard in Egypt is highest at the southern end of the Gulf of Suez, the nor ...
* List of earthquakes in Saudi Arabia * List of earthquakes in the Levant


References

;Bibliography * *


Further reading

*


External links


Aqaba – November 22, 1995, M7.1 Earthquake
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is a leading technical society in dissemination of earthquake risk and earthquake engineering research both in the U.S. and globally. EERI members include researchers, geologists, geotechnical e ...
* {{Earthquakes in the Levant Egypt Earthquake Earthquakes in Egypt Earthquakes in Saudi Arabia Sinai Peninsula 1995 in Jordan 1995 in Israel November 1995 events in Asia Earthquakes in Israel 1995 disasters in Asia