title: Seismic Hazards Implications of Uplifted Pleistocene Coral Terraces in the Gulf of Aqaba.
abstract: The Gulf of Aqaba transform plate boundary is a source of destructive teleseismic earthquakes. Seismicity is concentrated in the central sub-basin and decreases to both the north and south. Although principally a strike-slip plate boundary, the faulted margins of the Gulf display largely dip-slip extensional movement and accompanying footwall uplift. We have constrained rates of this uplift by measurements of elevated Pleistocene coral terraces. In particular the terrace that formed during the last interglacial (~125 ka) is found discontinuously along the length of the Gulf at elevations of 3 to 26 m. Global sea level was ~7 m higher than today at 125 ka indicating net maximum tectonic uplift of ~19 m with an average rate of ~0.015 cm/yr. Uplift has been greatest adjacent to the central sub-basin and like the seismicity decreases to the north and south. We suggest that the present pattern of a seismically active central region linked to more aseismic areas in the north and south has therefore persisted for at least the past 125 kyr. Consequently the potential for future destructive earthquakes in the central Gulf is greater than in the sub-basins to the north and south.
authors.affiliation: Apache Egypt Companies, 11 Street 281, New Maadi, Cairo, Egypt. bill.bosworth@apacheegypt.com.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bosworth
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy.|Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Avenue de la Terrasse, Gif-sur-Yvette, Île-de-France, 91198, France.|Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, 10964, NY, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Montagna
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Avenue de la Terrasse, Gif-sur-Yvette, Île-de-France, 91198, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pons-Branchu
authors.affiliation: Saudi Geological Survey, Box 54141, Jeddah, 21514, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rasul
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy.|Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, 02543, MA, USA.|Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Taviani