Abd El-Aziz Khairy Abd el-aal

Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research | KISR · Environment and Life Sciences Research Center

Nuweiba is located on the western coast of the Gulf of Aqaba (GoA), which represents the southern part of the Gulf of Aqaba - Dead Sea transform fault (GoA-DST). The GoA is characterized by high seismic activity and is the source of the November 22, 1995, Nuweiba earthquake, with a moment magnitude of Mw 7.3. This seismic unrest caused extensive da...

On June 4, 2022, the largest earthquake ever recorded by the Kuwait National Seismic Network hit Kuwait. The quake had a magnitude of 5 on the local magnitude scale and a focal depth of 5 km. Twelve aftershocks with magnitudes ranging from 1.2 to 2.7 were also recorded later in the same area, although earthquakes here are rare. In this article, we...

Kuwait's geographical and regional location in the Arab region and its natural resources, which include oil and natural gas, makes the need for geological and geophysical manuscripts very significant and of great value to the State of Kuwait. From a purely geological point of view, the State of Kuwait needs more of these geological and geophysical...

The outcomes of this study are necessary to assess seismic hazard in Kuwait. The noticeable increase in urban development and construction of tall structures and skyscrapers highlights the importance of seismic risk analysis and the creation of a unified seismic code for Kuwait. This paper can be considered as an initial step through the assessment...

This chapter deals with all the precious documented recently published and unpublished studies that address the seismic situation and earthquakes in the State of Kuwait. Kuwait is geographically and geologically situated in the northeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. In addition to being close to the famous Zagros belt of earthquakes, the local...

Low magnitude Earthquakes are the most natural hazard facing Kuwait, while other environmental challenges such as flooding, dust fallout, land degradation, and aeolian sand movement often arise from human impact as well as natural factors. Because of the rapid socio-economic development in the last five decades in Kuwait, these issues cause environ...

Several seismological and paloseismolgical studies and historical reports have indicated that Gulf of Aqaba is characterized by higher seismicity than any other seismogenic sources around Egypt. Accordingly, surrounding areas have been impacted by several destructive earthquakes (AD 1068, AD 1212, AD 1229, AD 1458, and AD 1995). Cities situated aro...

This study addresses the first and most important step in measuring the level of seismic hazard in Kuwait. As a result of development, there has been a rise in urban growth leading to the establishment of massive structures and skyscrapers in Kuwait. Therefore, there is demand for seismic risk assessment and the creation of a single seismic code fo...

This study addresses the first and most important step in measuring the level of seismic hazard in Kuwait. As a result of development, there has been a rise in urban growth leading to the establishment of massive structures and skyscrapers in Kuwait. Therefore, there is demand for seismic risk assessment and the creation of a single seismic code fo...

Urban development and construction of high-rise buildings in Kuwait have recently increased precipitately. For this reason, creating a seismic code for residential areas in Kuwait has become essential. This exertion to acquire precious results is the first step toward creating a unified earthquake code for the residential areas in the State of Kuwa...

The purpose of this investigation is to compute the seismic vulnerability in the Rif area in order to estimate the occurrence susceptibility to liquefaction sites. In addition to that, evaluating the liquefaction potential is one of the most useful investigations for risk mitigation and seismic hazard zonation and assessment. The parameter of the s...

The urban development in Kuwait is growing rapidly in the past few years. Recently, a large number of new bridges, tall buildings and other infrastructures are constructed in Kuwait. The tallest sculptured tower in the world, the Al-Hmara tower is situated in the Kuwait city. Therefore, predicting ground motion and estimating the seismic hazard in...

On November 15, 2019, a sequence of small/micro earthquakes struck specific area near an oil production field in the northern part of the State of Kuwait. Generally, the phenomenon of the earthquakes swarming is rarely occurring in Kuwait. More than 56 earthquakes were monitored by the Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN) where the magnitudes of...

The valuable results from this research are the first and essential step for assessing seismic risk in Kuwait. The increase in the urban development and construction of tall buildings and skyscrapers in Kuwait necessitated an estimate of the seismic risk for creating a unified seismic code for Kuwait. This research comes to make the necessarily ste...

A sequence of small-to-moderate terrifying earthquakes occurred in the northern part of the State of Kuwait on November 15, 2019. These earthquakes have certainly been recorded by the Kuwait National Seismological Network (KNSN), where the magnitudes of the earthquakes ranged from 0.8 to 4.1 having focal depths ranging from 2 to 15 km. This sequenc...

earthquake catalog for local earthquake in Egypt from 1997 to 2019

To determine whether recent seismicity around the High Dam Lake (Lake Nasser) in the Aswan region is induced or triggered by the lake reservoir or is of natural origin, we analyzed moment tensor solutions and source spectra of recent recorded earthquakes in the area. The earthquakes' focal mechanisms, including source mechanism parameters and sourc...

Damping modification factor serves in international seismic codes as a transformation factor between the conventional 5%-damped elastic response spectrum and the corresponding spectra with other damping levels. This transformation process is necessary for the design of structures with high damping levels such as seismically isolated buildings. The...

In this work, we publish a moment-local magnitude scale catalogue for the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) since 1997 to 2019 as necessary for the study of seismicity and seismic hazard estimation. Every year, the ENSN publish an annual bulletin of local and regional earthquakes recorded by the network with local magnitude (Ml) scale. The E...

In this work, we publish a moment-local magnitude scale catalogue for the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) since 1997 to 2019 as necessary for the study of seismicity and seismic hazard estimation. Every year, the ENSN publish an annual bulletin of local and regional earthquakes recorded by the network with local magnitude (Ml) scale. The E...

The new administrative capital city in Egypt, planned to be constructed in the area between Cairo and Suez cities, is vulnerable to moderate and strong earthquakes, which are inevitable in the region. The moderate size recent earthquake with local magnitude 4.2 took place in the vicinity of administrative capital area on 31st of December 2018. The...

Understanding the description of circumstantial seismic noise in seismic network is very important mission for inspection the detectability presentation of recording seismic stations. Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) was constructed following the Cairo earthquake which happened in Egypt at October 12, 1992. The current paper focuses on the...

Despite the modernity of the 15th Mayo city, buildings suffer progressively from engineering problems which are increased over the last 10 years like cracks, fissures, cavities and tilting of building. The main target of this work is to delineate the dynamic engineering characteristics of subsurface rocks and soils through interpretation of P- and...

This chapter included four parts, which cover seismicity, seismotectonic and neotectonics in Egypt. The first part includes a historical review in earthquakes and a survey the seismotectonic zones in Egypt. The second parts considered the application of EMR data in detecting seismotectonic zones in Egypt. The third part describes the role of GPS me...

Gulf of Suez area which characterized by a moderate seismic activity is consider as a very important area in Egypt. Nearly 75% of the national oil production is covered from this area. Seismic hazard (both probabilistic and deterministic) was carried out to study the possibility of earthquake damage in the area; a new seismic model was used taking...

The Gulf of Aqaba is one of the most active places around Egypt, with several earthquake sequences having occurred there through ancient and modern times. In the last century, four earthquake sequences took place in the gulf (1983, 1990, 1993, and 1995). Recently, on 27 June 2015, a sequence of 96 earthquakes with local magnitudes ranging from 0.7...

On-shore wind turbines are typically founded on shallow gravity-based foundations that are designed to transmit vertical and lateral loads. Improved understanding of the foundation, as well as the over-all system behavior will lead to safe and economical designs. In this study, experimental results of a 55 m in-service Gamesa G52/850 wind turbine t...

Knowledge of the soil response to seismic activity allows to better incorporate the constraints of seismic risk reduction. The experimental methods employed to determine site effects seek to obtain seismic amplification parameters by means of measuring earthquakes or seismic background noise. In this work, we present the main set of results of the...

In this contribution, new relationship between the fundamental site frequency and the thickness of soft sediments is obtained for many sites in Egypt. The Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (“H/V”) technique (known as Nakamura technique) can be used as a robust tool to determine the thickness of soft sediments layers overlaying bedrock from obse...

Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of Africa within a sensitive seismotectonic location. Earthquakes are concentrated along the active tectonic boundaries of African, Eurasian, and Arabian plates. The study area is characterized by northward increasing sediment thickness leading to more damage to structures in the north due to multiple ref...

In this study we computed recent seismicity and present kinematic regime in the northern and middle zones of Gulf of Suez as inferred from moment tensor settlings and focal mechanism of local earthquakes that happened in this region. On 18 and 22 of July, 2014 two moderate size earthquakes of local magnitudes 4.2 and 4.1 struck the northern zone of...

In this contribution, a new relationship between the fundamental site frequency and the thickness of soft sediments is obtained for many sites in Egypt. I validated and compared new formula results with the results obtained from other formulas of earlier scientists. The obtained results indicate that the calculated depth and geometry of the bedrock...

We utilized the seismicity and the potential field data to study the tectonic deformation and to delineate the seismically active subsurface tectonic trends of El-Faiyum area. To accomplish these goals, we analyzed and interpreted the seismicity data, the reduced to pole total magnetic intensity, and the Bouguer anomaly maps. We also used the spati...

A moderate-sized earthquake of Mw 4.4 occurred in southwestern Saudi Arabia on 23 January 2014. The event is considered as the largest observed earthquake that has occurred in the epicentral area. To examine the seismogenic stress regime and resolve the fault plane ambiguity, the hypocenter locations and focal mechanisms were determined using well...

In the current work, we computed recent seismicity and present kinematic regime in the northern and middle parts of Gulf of Suez as inferred from moment tensor solutions and focal mechanism of local earthquakes that occurred in this region. On 18 and 22 of July, 2014 two moderate size earthquakes of local magnitudes 4.2 and 4.1 struck the northern...

To obtain the characterized source model for prediction of strong ground motions, the ground motion generation area and rupture geometry of an inland crustal earthquake from near-source ground motion records has been estimated. An earthquake, with a magnitude of 4.3 ML and a focal depth of 18 km occurred on September 3, 2015 at 30.45N, 28.44E in th...

We estimated moment tensor and centroid depth of eight small/moderate local earthquakes occurred between 2011 and 2013 in the northern Red Sea Triple Junction using a moment tensor inversion of near-source waveform data recorded by very broadband stations of the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN). We also estimated the focal mechanism using t...

Egypt is located at the north-eastern corner of Africa in a sensitive seismotectonic location. Earthquakes tend to occur along the active dynamic margins of African, Arabian and Eurasian plates. The study area is characterized by northward increasing in sediment thicknesses leading to more damage to the structures owing to the multiple reflection o...

Recording microtremor data is increasingly used in determining the site effect on earthquake ground motion especially in regions of moderate to low earthquake activity. In this study we used microtremor data to evaluate the effect of shallow sedimentary layers on earthquake ground motion in Quseir city which is located in the Red Sea coast, Egypt....

Keywords: Ambient seismic noise, power spectral density, Peterson models,seismic arrays, Morocco

On 27 June 2015, a moderate earthquake with magnitude Mb 5.2 struck the Gulf of Aqaba near Nuweiba City. This event was instrumentally recorded by the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) and many other international seismological centres. The event was felt in all the cities on the Gulf of Aqaba, as well as Suez City, Hurghada City, the greate...

In this study, an integrated multi-channel analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) technique is applied to explore the geotechnical parameters of subsurface layers at the Zafarana wind farm. Moreover, a seismic hazard procedure based on the extended deterministic technique is used to estimate the seismic hazard load for the investigated area. The study ar...

Recording ambient noise at the surface is increasingly used for the assessment of site response and has become a fundamental task for seismic risk reduction in urbanized areas. Methods based on the measurement of seismic noise, which typically are fast, non invasive, and low cost, have become a very attractive option in microzonation studies. In th...

A hybrid empirical method is proposed to simulate broadband ground-motion that combines the stochastic method for finite faults and the k-2 slip model. The utilized approach, firstly, subdivides the fault plane into a number of subfaults. Secondly, k-2 slip model characterizing higher wave number of slip distribution is used to account for the eart...

In the current work, we constructed new comprehensive standard seismic noise models and 3D temporal-spatial seismic noise level cubes for Morocco in north-west Africa to be used for seismological and engineering purposes. Indeed, the original global standard seismic noise models published by Peterson (1993) and their following updates by Astiz and...

In this contribution, we developed an extended stochastic technique for seismic hazard assessment purposes. This technique depends on the hypothesis of stochastic technique of Boore (2003) "Simulation of ground motion using the stochastic method. Appl. Geophy. 160:635–676". The essential characteristics of extended stochastic technique are to obtai...

Suez Canal is the most important navigational water stream in the world. It separates the eastern part of the Nile Delta from northern Sinai and controls 40 % of ship movement in the world. There is also the new Suez Canal project, which is one of the most important new projects in Egypt. The purpose of this study is to assess seismic hazards at an...

In this study, stochastic and probabilistic seis-mic hazard procedures are used to estimate the seismic hazard for wind turbine tower sites in Zafarana Wind Farm, Gulf of Suez, Egypt. The seismic activity in and around the study area, which includes many active fault systems along the Gulf of Suez resulting in many moderate and strong earthquakes,...

We present, in this paper, the results of an analysis of the variations in ambient seismic noise levels from data collected for the first time in Morocco. For this purpose, 23 broadband seismic stations were deployed in different structural domains covering Rif Mountains, Middle and High Atlas and parts of the Anti-Atlas. We calculated power spectr...

The mitigation of nuclear facility or specific buildings from earthquake damage and the protection of the inhabitants from injury and loss of life are the responsibilities of seismic researchers and engineers. The stochastic method was used to simulate the high ground motion produced from damaging earthquakes at any area with no seismic records. In...

Seismic micro hazard zonation for urban areas is the first step towards a seismic risk analysis and mitigation strategy. Essential here is to obtain a proper understanding of the local subsurface conditions and to evaluate ground shaking effects. In the present study, an attempt has been made to evaluate the seismic hazard considering local site...

We present, in this paper, the results of an analysis of the variations in ambient seismic noise levels from data collected for the first time in Morocco. For this purpose, 23 broadband seismic stations were deployed in different structural domains covering Rif Mountains, Middle and High Atlas and parts of the Anti-Atlas. We calculated power spectr...

An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 Mw occurred on 18th January 2011 in Southwestern Pakistan, Baluchistan province (Dalbadin Region). The area has complex tectonics due to interaction of Indian, Eurasian and Arabian plates. Both thrust and strike slip earthquakes are dominant in this region with minor, localized normal faulting events. This earthquake...

Gwadar City is located at the coastline of Pakistan. The city is currently in a phase of development, which is expected to become a future economic hub for Pakistan. This has led us to choose Gwadar for seismic hazard evaluation. Seismic hazard analysis for Gwadar is carried out using deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard analysis techniqu...

It has been two decades since the last comprehensive standard model of ambient earth noise was published Peterson (Observations and modelling of seismic background noise, US Geological Survey, open-file report 93–322, 1993). The PETERSON model was updated by analyzing the absolute quietest conditions for stations within the GSN (Berger et al. in J...

An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 Mb occurred on 29 October 2008 near Chiltan hills, Balochistan Province, in Pakistan with a foreshock of magnitude 5.0 Mb. Depths of events were 15 and 12 km, respectively. The intensity of the mainshock was VIII in and around the Ziarat–Pashin areas while the Peak Ground Acceleration recorded at Quetta area (60 km fr...

This paper describes the results of a preliminary study conducted to analyze seismic background noise at sites of recently deployed very broadband stations of the Egyptian National Seismological Network (ENSN). The main purpose of the study is to assess the effects of permanent seismic vault construction and also to establish characteristics and or...

The slip-sweep technique is one of the high-efficiency, high-fidelity, and environmental vibroseis seismic prospecting techniques which consists of a vibrator group sweeping without waiting for the previous group's sweep to terminate. The cycle time can be reduced drastically and hence the production effi ciency can be increased signifi cantly but...

The slip-sweep technique is one of the high-efficiency, high-fidelity, and environmental vibroseis seismic prospecting techniques which consists of a vibrator group sweeping without waiting for the previous group’s sweep to terminate. The cycle time can be reduced drastically and hence the production efficiency can be increased significantly but ha...