Source parameters of the 2007 earthquake sequence, Aswan, Egypt

Abstract

An earthquake sequence occurred in Aswan area during the period from April 2007 to December 2008. The spectral analysis technique was performed for some earthquakes ( M D 2.0–3.3) to obtain the earthquakes source parameters, such as: seismic moment ( M o ), corner frequency ( f o ), fault radius ( r o ), stress drop (Δ σ), average displacement across the fault ( d o ), and the moment magnitude ( M w ). The earthquakes source parameters were determined using PITSA and Matlab7 software programs. The derived corner frequencies f o for P-wave spectra show values range between 7.27 and 9.02 Hz, the seismic moments M o are varied from 0.16 × 10 20 to 2.7 × 10 21 dyne/cm, the source radii r are spanned between 2.78 and 342 m, while the stress drops Δ σ are varied from 0.34 to 29.3 bar. Some scaling relations between the different obtained source parameters were derived such as: M o – M D , M o –Δ δ, and the moment magnitude M w – M D . This is to deduce the empirical relations for these parameters, which can help in turn in the fast calculation of the different source parameters for the inherited earthquakes of the area.