Accepted Manuscript

Full length article

Compiling an earthquake catalogue for the Arabian Plate, Western Asia

Ahmed Deif, Yousuf Al-Shijbi, Issa El-Hussain, Mohamed Ezzelarab, Adel

M.E. Mohamed

PII: S1367-9120(17)30379-6
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2017.07.033
Reference: JAES 3173

To appear in: Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

Received Date: 9 March 2017

Revised Date: 11 July 2017
Accepted Date: 18 July 2017

Please cite this article as: Deif, A., Al-Shijbi, Y., El-Hussain, I., Ezzelarab, M., Mohamed, A.M.E., Compiling an
earthquake catalogue for the Arabian Plate, Western Asia, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (2017), doi: http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2017.07.033

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 1Compiling an earthquake catalogue for the Arabian Plate, Western Asia

2 Deif1,2, Yousuf Al-Shijbi1, Issa El-Hussain1, Mohamed Ezzelarab 1,2, Adel M. E.

Ahmed

3 Mohamed 1,2

1- Earthquake
4 Monitoring Center, Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman,

2- National
5 Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt

*Corresponding
6 Author: Issa El-Hussain, elhussain@squ.edu.om

Abstract
7

8 The Arabian Plate is surrounded by regions of relatively high seismicity.

Accounting
9 for this seismicity is of great importance for seismic hazard and risk

assessments,
10 seismic zoning, and land use. In this study, a homogenous earthquake

catalogue
11 of moment-magnitude (Mw) for the Arabian Plate is provided. The

comprehensive
12 and homogenous earthquake catalogue provided in the current study

spatially
13 involves the entire Arabian peninsula and neighboring areas, covering all

earthquake
14 sources that can generate substantial hazard for the Arabian plate

mainland.
15 The catalogue extends in time from 19 to 2015 with a total number of

13156
16 events, of which 497 are historical events. Four polygons covering the entire

Arabian
17 Plate were delineated and different data sources including special studies,

local,
18 regional and international catalogues were used to prepare the earthquake

catalogue.
19 Moment magnitudes (Mw) that provided by original sources were given

the 20
highest magnitude type priority and introduced to the catalogues with their

references.
21 Earthquakes with magnitude differ from Mw were converted into this

scale22applying empirical relationships derived in the current or in previous studies.

The23four polygons catalogues were included in two comprehensive earthquake

catalogues
24 constituting the historical and instrumental periods. Duplicate events were

identified
25 and discarded from the current catalogue. The present earthquake catalogue

1
was26
declustered in order to contain only independent events and investigated for the

completeness
27 with time of different magnitude spans.

Key28
words: Arabian Plate, earthquake catalogue, seismic hazards

29

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2
1 Introduction
51

52The Arabian Plate was brought into existence 25 to 30 million years ago, when

it started
53 to separate from the African Plate due to the opening of the Red Sea and

Gulf54of Aden (Johnson, 1998). The Arabian Plate is surrounded by seismically active

tectonic
55 boundaries including the East Anatolian fault to the north, the strike slip

Aqaba-Dead
56 Sea fault (ADSF) to the northwest, the divergent boundaries of the Red

Sea 57
and the Gulf of Aden to the west and south respectively, the strike slip Owen and

Murray
58 Fracture Zones to the southeast, and the convergent margins at the continent-

continent
59 collision of Zagros-Bitlis and Makran Subduction Zones to the northeast

and 60
east, respectively (Fig. 1). The Arabian plate's interior is considered as a stable

area61since the vast majority of the associated earthquake activities are confined to its

boundaries.
62

63The earthquake occurrence at the boundaries of the Arabian Plate necessitates

investigating
64 their seismicity so as to appropriately assess the seismic hazard in the

Arabian
65 Peninsula. Compiling a comprehensive, long, reliable, and homogeneous

with66sufficiently low magnitude threshold earthquake catalogue is essential for any

seismic
67 hazard and risk assessments and for any further statistical analysis of

seismicity
68 in the study area.

69No single seismic database is available to cover the entire seismicity of the

Arabian
70 Plate, but a set of a heterogeneous earthquake databases. The earthquake

information
71 have been reported in various publications and cover at most a large part

of the
72 Arabian plate (e.g. Ambraseys et al., 1994, El-Hussain et al., 2012). These

databases
73 have differences in terms of duration, area of study, reported magnitude

types,
74 and size ranges, which call for additional considerations to homogenize these

inputs.
75 Researchers, who are looking to study the Arabian Plate entirely should exert

3
tedious
76 efforts investigating all these data sources. Gathering all these databases into a

possibly
77 single homogeneous database is a helpful material for further studies.

78The present work shows the process of compiling the earthquake dataset for the

Arabian
79 Plate, removing foreshocks and aftershocks (catalogue declustering), and

evaluate
80 the completeness with time of the declustered seismic catalogue. It extends

in time
81 from 19 AD to 2015 AD in eastern Turkey. Nevertheless for most of the

investigated
82 area, the duration of the investigated catalogues is much shorter (e.g.

Zagros
83 fold-thrust belt extends from 734 AD to 2015AD). The magnitude threshold is

selected
84 to be 4.0 on any magnitude scale as earthquakes with less magnitude are not

anticipated
85 to cause substantial risk. Additionally, earthquakes with magnitude less

than864.0 are significantly incomplete owing to the relatively recent deployment of the

local87seismic networks. The earthquake size in final catalogue is unified in terms of

moment
88 magnitude scale. The initially reported magnitude with its reference is kept in

the 89
final catalogue to let users who would like to apply other magnitude conversion

relationships
90 or to use different homogenization magnitude type to have their own

catalogues.
91

92

93The area of investigation was subdivided into four polygons (Fig. 2) based

mainly
94 upon tectonic regime, seismic activity and geographic considerations. Polygon

one 95
(1) covers mainly the collide zone of Zagros and Makran Subduction Zones.

Polygon
96 two (2) covers the eastern and southern part of Turkey, Cyprus, and northern

Syria,
97 while polygon three (3) covers the area of the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea fault

and 98
part of Sinai Peninsula. Finally, polygon four (4) includes earthquakes recorded in

the 99
divergent tectonic environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in addition to

Owen-Murray
100 Fracture Zone and the Arabian Plate intercontinental land.

4
 If a specific earthquake is listed in more than one catalogue, a particular
101

prioritization
102 scheme for each polygon is developed in order to select the best entry

for 103
each event. This scheme is based upon the authors' opinion regarding the

reliability
104 of each data source. For the current study, special studies always have the

highest
105 priority because we anticipate additional efforts were applied to get enhanced

earthquake
106 location, size, and focal mechanism over local, regional, and international

catalogues.
107

The dataset was generally divided into three subsets: earthquakes occurred
108

earlier
109than 1900 (pre-instrumental or historical), earthquakes occurred between 1900

and 110
1963 (early instrumental), and earthquakes occurred between 1964 and 2015

(instrumental).
111 The first sub-period contains earthquake parameters that determined

based
112mainly upon macroseismic data, while the second sub-period is a combination

of 113
macroseismic and instrumental information. The quantity and quality of

instrumental
114 data increases in the third sub-period with special studies for some of the

large115
events being accessible.

As the used databases overlap temporally and spatially, an effort has been
116

exerted
117 to remove the duplicate events manually. Basically, the current seismic

catalogue
118 contains essential set of information on the location, origin time, and size of

earthquakes,
119 with data sources from which the above earthquake parameters were

retrieved.
120 The depth and focal mechanism are additionally provided if present. One of

the 121
most craved goals of the current study is to make this catalogue available at:

http:\\www.squ.edu.om/emc/home/ArabianCatalogue
122 to those interested in the

seismicity
123 of the Arabian Plate.

124

125

5
2 Earthquake
126 Catalogue Compilation

2.1 127
Earthquake catalogue of polygon 1

The catalogue of this polygon covers the areas of Zagros, part of Central Iran,
128

Makran,
129 Arabian Gulf, and east of the Arabian Peninsula (Fig. 2). The earthquake

catalogue
130 for this polygon was compiled mainly using the two regional catalogues

developed
131 by Ambraseys and Melville, 1982; Ambraseys et al., 1994), Aldama

catalogue
132 (2009), Iran catalogue developed by Shavar et al. (2013), Iraq catalogue

developed
133 by Al-Heety (2014), the earthquake data bank of the International Institute

of Earthquake
134 Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), local catalogues of Oman, UAE,

and 135
Kuwait, data of Iranian Seismological Center (IRSC), which appeared online

since 2006 (Karimiparidari et al., 2013), ISC-GEM global seismological catalogue,

136

the EHB
137 catalogue (Engdahl et al., 1998) updated to consider events up to 2008, data

retrieved
138 from the ISC (International Seismological Center) web site, data provided

by United
139 States Geological Survey (USGS) via the National Earthquake Information

Center
140 (NEIC), catalogue of the Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich (ZUR_RMT),

and 141
Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT), which is formerly known as Harvard

CMT (Dziewonski et al., 1981; Ekstrom et al., 2012).

142

Particular effort was made to collect additional information regarding events

143

with144large magnitude from more detailed special studies, either for particular

earthquake
145 or several events (e.g., Baker et al., 1993; Berberian, 1995a; Maggi et al.,

2000;
146Berberian et al., 2000; Berberian et al., 2001; Ambraseys and Bilham, 2003;

Talebian
147 and Jackson, 2004; Walker et al., 2005, Rodgers et al., 2006, Musson 2009).

The148
current catalogue covers the period from 734 AD up to the end of 2015 AD. A

careful
149 search through each of the source catalogues was made in order to eliminate

6
duplicate
150 events and compare times, locations and magnitudes reported for each of the

events.
151

2.1.1152
Historical Seismicity (prior to 1900)

For this sub-period, the highest location priority is assigned to Ambraseys and
153

Melville
154 (1982) and Ambraseys et al. (1994) publications, so that almost the

seismicity
155 of this polygon is provided consistently. These publications are followed

by 156
Aldama (2009), who relies greatly upon the above two catalogues. The

macroseismic
157 observations identified the most reliable epicenter locations for this

sub-period.
158 Surface wave magnitude (Ms) values reported in Ambraseys publications

are 159
estimated from felt reports (i.e. maximum intensity and radius of felt area). Ms is

the 160
main magnitude scale for this sub-period. Berberian (1995a) estimated moment

magnitude
161 (Mw) for some earthquakes in Iran. These Mw magnitudes was given a

priority
162 over the estimated Ms.

163

2.1.2164
Early instrumental sub-period (1900 to 1963).

This sub-period of the database is compiled using the international and regional
165

catalogues
166 of Ambraseys and Melville, 1982; Ambraseys et al., 1994; Aldama, 2009,

ISC_GEM,
167 EHB, ISC, NEIC, IIEES, and Shavar et al., 2013. Ambraseys catalogues

(Ambraseys
168 and Melville, 1982; Ambraseys et al., 1994) were given the highest

priority
169 for earthquake locations followed by Aldama (2009) catalogue, and data

provided
170 by ISC_GEM, EHB, ISC, NEIC, IIEES, and Shavar et al. (2013),

respectively.
171 Data retrieved from the Earthquake Data Bank of the IIEES was

introduced
172 into the catalogue if no other regional data sources do exist for a specific

event.
173Earthquakes reported in EHB catalogue were assigned higher priority over the

ISC174
and NEIC catalogues because EHB of Engdahl et al., 1998 relocated with better

7
depth
175estimation all teleseismic events with Mw > 5.5 that reported by the ISC and

USGS,
176 in addition to some earthquakes of smaller Mw. Re-calculated depths from the

EHB177catalogue are within the error bounds of those re-calculated by Jackson and

Fitch (1981), Baker et al. (1993) and Talebian and Jackson (2004). EHB catalogue is
178

updated
179 to 2008, when the ISC bulletins start to use a similar technique to locate

earthquakes.
180

Ambraseys and Melville (1982) and Ambraseys et al. (1994) reported location,
181

Ms,182
and mb magnitudes for earthquakes of this sub-period but they did not report

depth.
183The ISC on-line bulletins reported location, magnitude, and depth for some

events.
184 The ISC on-line bulletins is the only source that provides the focal depths

systematically.
185 Depths reported by the ISC on-line bulletins are considered as the

most186
accurate and are consistent with those stated by other supplementary studies

(e.g.,
187Berberian, 1973; Quittmeyer and Jacob, 1979). Thus, depth of ISC bulletins are

assigned
188 for events lacking for focal depth.

For this sub-period, Iran Catalogue of Shavar et al. (2013) and Iraq Catalogue of
189

Al-Heety
190 (2014) were assigned lower priorities because they highly depend on data

derived
191 from the international catalogues that used in the current study. Regarding

earthquake
192 magnitude, priority was given to the moment magnitude provided mostly

by ISC-GEM
193 and Shavar et al., 2013, who compiled them from the bulletins of

Earthquake
194 Mechanism of Mediterranean Area EMMA. This is followed by Ms

estimates
195 from the felt data in Ambraseys publications, Aldama (2009), and Ms and

mb of
196ISC bulletins.

197

2.1.3198
Instrumental sub-Period (1964-2015)

8
 For earthquakes that occurred between 1964 and 2000, data from special studies
199

including
200 Ambraseys et al., 1982 & 1994 publications are selected as the most reliable

followed
201 by ISC-GEM, EHB, ISC, and NEIC. Locations reported by Ambraseys and

Melville
202 (1982) and Ambraseys et al. (1994) are complemented with depths reported

by the
203EHB and ISC catalogues, when available. For earthquakes occurred post 2000,

the 204
information of the IEESS had the second priority after the special studies due to

the 205
operation of the Iranian seismic network, and is followed by IRSC, ISC-GEM,

EHB,
206ISC, NEIC, and local catalogues of Oman, UAE, and Kuwait, respectively. The

local207
catalogues of Oman, UAE, and Kuwait had a lower priority since earthquakes

with208
magnitude greater than 4 is very rare inside these three countries and their

seismic
209 networks record mostly regional earthquakes from the Makran and Zagros

areas.
210For these regional events the location of these three local catalogues is less

reliable
211 than the other data sources. For the rare local events with magnitude greater

than212
4.0, these three local catalogues were given a higher priorities.

Priority considering the magnitude type was taken according to the following
213

succession
214 moment magnitude (Mw), surface wave magnitude (Ms), body wave

magnitude
215 (mb), and local magnitude (ML), respectively. Highest priority was given

to Mw
216 provided by special studies on particular events followed by Mw of catalogue

of the
217Institute of Technology (ETH) of Zurich ZUR_RMT. These are followed by

Mw218
of Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT), which provides the majority of Mw

available
219 for the entire area of the current study, ISC-GEM, and ISC bulletins, which

provide
220 irregular Mw magnitudes that were used as supplementary source. The Mw

magnitude
221 is followed by Ms and mb magnitudes reported in Ambraseys publications,

EHB,
222ISC, and NEIC, respectively. Magnitudes of IIEES and IRSC are given less

9
priority
223 as they are defined in local magnitude (ML) and Nuttli magnitude (MN)

respectively.
224

225

2.1.4226
Magnitude homogenization

For the current polygon, surface wave magnitude is the most popular recorded
227

scale228
in both historical and early instrumental periods. Body wave magnitude turns

out 229
to be the most common reported scale in the instrumental period. Occasionally,

moment
230 and local magnitudes become available for a number of events. Duration

magnitude
231 (MD) estimates are rarely reported.

Earthquake recurrency is the main component of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard

232

Assessment
233 (PSHA). It is a relationship between the magnitude and the cumulative

number
234 of earthquakes of magnitude equal or greater than specific value M. Thus it

can 235
be used to provide the future expectation of the earthquake occurrence using the

complete
236 part of the earthquake catalogue. Different earthquake magnitude scales are

reported
237 for different earthquakes in the initial state of the current catalogue

preparation.
238 Using of such inhomogeneous magnitude scales could result in serious

drawbacks
239 in catalogue completeness and consequently in earthquake recurrency,

which
240leads to significant ambiguity in the hazard results. Therefore, it is essential to

utilize
241 one magnitude scale for all earthquakes in the catalogue, leading to less

uncertainty
242 in the recurrence rates of moderate to large earthquakes (Atkinson and

McCartney,
243 2005).

The Mw was selected to homogenize the earthquake size because it is the most
244

reliable
245 magnitude scale and the majority of the recent ground-motion prediction

equations
246 are expressed in Mw. Ms is given the highest priority for magnitude

conversion
247 followed by mb and ML respectively. For the current polygon, conversion

10
of different
248 magnitude scales into Mw is achieved using empirical relationships

developed
249 by Shavar et al. (2013) for Zagros and Central Iran.

250

2.2 251
Earthquake catalogue of polygon 2

This catalogue covers mainly the area of the East Anatolian fault, the most
252

northern
253 part of the Aqaba-Dead Sea fault, and the most northern part of the Arabian

Peninsula
254 (Fig. 2). It extends from 19 AD to 2015 AD. The main source of data for

this 255
polygon is Euro-Mediterranean Earthquake Catalogue (EMEC) (Grünthal and

Wahlstrom,
256 2012), which spans in time from 1000 AD to 2006 AD and extends to

Longitude
257 40 o E. The current catalogue is constructed for this polygon using the

information
258 provided by the local agencies and several special studies. It expressed

the 259
earthquake size in terms of moment magnitude and assigned the highest priority

for 260
the special studies. The backbone for the Mw for the EMEC from 1997 and

upward
261 are the European-Mediterranean Regional Centroid Moment Tensor Solutions

(RCMTS)
262 by Pondrelli et al. (2002, 2004, 2007, 2011). From 1999 and upward the

Swiss
263Moment Tensor Solutions (SMTS) is the main source of (EMEC) Catalogue.

Although
264 RCMTS and SMTS are highly compatible, EMEC catalogue gave SMTS

higher
265priority over RCMTS.

Soysal et al., 1981, KOERI, ISC-GEM, EHB, ISC, and (Geophysical Institute of
266

Israel
267(GII) catalogues were the main supplementary sources for earthquakes located

268 east of longitude 40o E and to fill minor gaps that left by Grünthal and
to the

Wahlstrom
269 2012 catalogue along the entire period of interest. Very rare entries from

Iraq270
Seismic Network (ISN) and Experimental International Data Center (EIDC) were

introduced.
271 Available depth reported by the EHB and ISC bulletins is supplemented

11
to earthquakes
272 that missing depth. Details of catalogue compilation are shown in the

following
273 sections.

274

2.2.1275
Historical seismicity

One of the important studies on the historical earthquakes in Turkey and the
276

surrounding
277 is Soysal et al. (1981), which is not mentioned at all in EMEC Grünthal

and 278
Wahlstrom (2012). The study provided 1175 earthquakes occurred between 2100

B.C.279
and 1900 A.D. Some of these events need to be scrutinized since they are not

mentioned
280 in any other studies. Earthquakes of this catalogue is used when no other

source
281 is available and when the time and location difference with other entries is

reasonably
282 large to avoid event duplication. The size of earthquakes in Soysal et al.

(1981)
283 study is expressed in terms of intensity and no information about earthquake

magnitudes
284 are available. Therefore, inversion from intensity into moment magnitude

for 285
this sub-period is required. After 1000 AD, the highest location and magnitude

priority
286 is assigned to Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012) over Soysal et al. (1981)

catalogue
287 because it uses the moment magnitude and for being the latest among the

used288
studies for this area. Before 1000 Ad Soysal et al. (1981) study is the only

available
289 source of seismicity for this polygon.

290

2.2.2291
Early instrumental and instrumental sub-periods (1900-2015)

For these sub-periods, earthquakes reported by the EMEC (Grünthal and

292

Wahlstrom,
293 2012) was given the highest priority over existing catalogues. This is

followed
294 by earthquakes reported by Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research

Institute
295 (KOERI) of Bogazici University. KOERI catalogue has the first priority after

and to the east of longitude 40o E, where no information is provided by Grünthal

2006296

12
and 297
Wahlstrom, 2012. These two catalogues are followed by ISC-GEM, ISC and

Geophysical
298 Institute of Israel (GII) bulletins respectively, which add minor

contribution
299 to the contents of this polygon. The size of the majority of the

earthquakes
300 (EMEC and KOERI) are reported in moment magnitude (Mw), while that

of ISC
301 and GII are reported mainly in body-wave magnitude (mb) and surface-wave

magnitude
302 (Ms).

303

2.2.3304
Magnitude homogenization

Conversion of earthquake size reported in various magnitude scales (Ms, mb,

305

ML,306
and MD) into Mw is carried out using empirical relationships developed for

Turkish
307 earthquakes (Deniz and Yucemen, 2010). These relationships were developed

applying
308 appropriate statistical regression algorithm that considers errors in the

independent
309 and dependent variables. As usual in the current study, Ms was given the

highest
310 priority for magnitude conversion followed by mb, ML, and MD respectively.

311Soysal et al., (1981) reported earthquakes with maximum felt intensity (Io)

without
312 magnitude, therefore, maximum intensities are initially converted into Ms

applying
313 a relation presented by Kalafat et al. (2007):

314 Ms = 1.39 + 0.60 * Io -------------------------------------(1)

The calculated Ms values are then converted to Mw with the empirical

315

relationships
316 developed by Deniz and Yucemen (2010)

317

2.3 318
Earthquake catalogue of polygon 3

Polygon 3 includes mainly the area of Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea fault,

319

northwestern
320 part of Saudi Arabia, and Sinai Peninsula (Fig. 2). The catalogue of this

polygon
321 covers the time period from 112 to 2015. The main datasets for this polygon

13
is Ambraseys
322 et al., (1994), EMEC of Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012), Ben Menahem

(1991),
323 earthquake catalogues of the Geophysical Institute of Israel (GII), Institute of

Petroleum
324 Research and Geophysics, Israel, (IPRG), Egyptian National Seismological

Network
325 (ENSN), Saudi National Seismological Network (SNSN), ISC-GEM, EHB,

ISC,326
and NEIC of USGS. Abdallah et al. (2004) is the backbone for the instrumental

part327
of EMEC of Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012) for this polygon.

328

2.3.1329
Historical period

Locations and magnitudes reported by Ambraseys et al. (1994) were given the
330

highest
331 priority followed by Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012), and Ben Menahem

(1991)
332respectively.

333

2.3.2334
Early instrumental and instrumental sub-periods

For the period from 1900-1998, the highest priority was given to earthquake
335

locations
336 of Ambraseys et al., 1994 over, Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012), GII, IPRG,

ISC-GEM,
337 EHB, ISC, and NEIC catalogues respectively. Although the relatively high

priority
338 of EMEC provided by Grünthal and Wahlstrom (2012), it gives values of zero

seconds
339 for many origin times, unlike GII, which has less priority. Additionally,

EMEC
340 misses many 4.0-5.0 magnitude events, which is mainly complemented by GII

catalogue.
341 The earthquake catalogue of GII provides the majority of the earthquake

parameters
342 in this period. It expresses the size of earthquake in terms of mb and ML

scales.
343 In 1998, National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG)

at Helwan
344 (HLW), Egypt started to operate the Egyptian National Seismic Network

(ENSN)
345 with 13 seismic stations all over Sinai, among them 3 stations were installed

along
346the Gulf of Aqaba. Therefore, earthquake parameters of (ENSN) for the Gulf of

14
Aqaba
347 and eastern Sinai regions are given the highest priority after 1998. The

remaining
348 parts of the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea fault have the same priority algorithm

of the
349period spans from 1900 to 1998.

350

2.3.3351
Magnitude homogenization

Priority of magnitude type was given the following order: Mw, Ms, mb, and
352

ML,353
respectively. Priority of Mw of special studies precedes that provided by

ZUR_RMT,
354 MedNet Regional Centroid Moment Tensor (MED_RCMT), GCMT,

ISC-GEM,
355 GII, and IPRG respectively. These sources are followed by Ms and mb

magnitudes
356 provided by Ambraseys publications, EHB, ISC, and NEIC, respectively.

The357
size of a limited number of earthquakes is defined in terms of local magnitude,

which
358took the lowest priority. No empirical regression relationships are available for

this 359
polygon to convert Ms and mb into Mw, therefore, the authors of the current

study developed the required empirical relationships..

360

For this polygon, the Orthogonal Standard Regression (OSR) and the Standard
361

Regression
362 (SR) techniques were used to define the most appropriate statistical

relationships
363 between the moment magnitude and both surface wave and body wave

magnitudes,
364 respectively. OSR requires the knowledge of the error variance ratio of

the 365
dependent and independent variables. It is, generally, considered more reliable

than366
the standard regression, which assumes that one of the two variables is error free.

In the
367present study, only 24 events with Ms and 95 events with mb were considered.

The368
majority of the moment magnitude values is provided by the Global Centroid

Moment
369 Tensor solutions (GCMT) followed by ZUR_RMT and special studies.

Unfortunately,
370 the error variance in magnitude required for OSR analysis is

unavailable
371 for many of the used databases. Therefore, the error variance ratio of the

15
two372
magnitude scales is assumed to be unity (Ristau, 2009). The obtained OSR and

SR 373
relationships are given below in Table 1 and are shown in Fig. 3. The Log

Likelihood
374 approach (LLH) developed by Scherbaum et al. 2009 is used to test the

derived
375 predictive model for the suitability for Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea region. A

smaller
376 LLH implies a better prediction relation between the observed and calculated

The low LLH and the high correlation coefficient (R2) values suggest using the
Mw.377

SR 378
model rather than OSR one. This may be due to the absence of actual error in

magnitude
379 determination.

The number of available ML-Mw pairs is very small to yield a robust

380

conversion
381 relationship. Therefore, ML is initially converted into mb using the

following
382 equation that derived in the current study applying regression analysis of

data383
from the current polygon (Fig. 4).

384 mb = 0.9143 ML + 0.427 -----------------------------------------(2)

The385
calculated mb is then converted into Mw using Mw-mb equation that derived

using SR technique and listed in Table 1.

386

387

2.4 388
Earthquake catalogue of polygon 4

This polygon includes the earthquakes recorded in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden,
389

Owen-Murray
390 Fracture Zone, and the Arabian Plate intercontinental land. Earthquake

locations
391 for this polygon were compiled mainly from the international catalogues

(i.e.392
ISC-GEM, EHB, ISC, and NEIC) in addition to the Yemen, Oman, United Arab

Emirates,
393 and Saudi Arabia local catalogues. For earthquakes occurred prior to 1964,

Ambraseys
394 et al. 1994 is selected to have the highest priority. For earthquakes that

occurred
395 between 1964 and 2015, Ambraseys et al., 1994, Ambraseys, 2001 and data

provided
396 by special studies (e.g. Aldama 2009; El-Hussain et al., 2012) are selected as

16
the 397
most reliable data sources followed by ISC-GEM, EHB, ISC, and NEIC,

respectively.
398 For regional events in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, local databases were

given
399a lower priority due to the large uncertainties associated with their location and

magnitude
400 for these earthquakes.

Saudi Arabia occupies the majority of the Arabian Plate intercontinental lands
401

and 402
has a very well equipped seismic network. Unfortunately, earthquakes recorded

inside
403Saudi Arabia and provided by the Saudi National Seismological Network

(SNSN)
404 were given a low priority. Although the date and location of the local

earthquakes
405 are mostly reasonable, a serious error in the origin time is very clear,

even406
for the events published in the ISC bulletins. Since we are looking for a

complete
407 catalogue for seismic hazard assessment, data provided by Saudi database is

taken only if no other entry from the used databases is available.

408

Yemen National Seismological Center (DHMR) shows peculiar mb values

409

starting
410 from 2001. This mb is very different from other magnitude scales and very

different
411 from mb's calculated by other seismological agencies (e.g. ISC Bulletins

Event
4123367399 on 09/06/2001at 1:45:55 in Eastern Gulf of Aden, and Event 2034744

on 02/09/2001
413 at 15:46:20 in Western Gulf of Aden). Earthquakes with mb calculated

only414
by DHMR were discarded from the present list.

In 2004, Sudan Seismological Network (SSN) supplied ISC Bulletins with 6

415

earthquakes
416 with Mw ranging from 4 to 5.2 in Yemen and Gulf of Aden. These events

were417
not reported in any other international or local network. Due to the remoteness

of SSN
418 from the reported events and the error associated with their location for the

earthquakes
419 occurring in the area of interest, these 6 earthquakes were also omitted,

(e.g.420
ISC Bulletins, Event 7326490 on 05/04/2004 at Afghanistan-Tajikistan border,

and 421
Event 7994558 on 26-09-2005 in Ethiopia).

17
2.4.1422
Magnitude conversion

For earthquake occurred before 1964 magnitude priority was given to Mw of

423

ISC-GEM,
424 followed by Ambraseys (2001), Ambraseys et al. (1994), ISC and NEIC.

For 425
seismic activity took place after 1964, priority was given to Mw of special

studies,
426 ISC-GEM, GCMT (Mw), and AFAR if available, followed by Ambraseys et

al. 1994
427 (Ms), ISC, NEIC, and ML, respectively. Moment magnitude (Mw) is given

the 428
highest priority over the other magnitude types followed by surface wave

magnitude
429 (Ms), body wave magnitude (mb) and local magnitude (ML), respectively.

In the current study, the equation provided by Babiker et al. (2015) for mb up to
430

6.3,431
which is developed mainly for the Red Sea and part of the Gulf of Aden is used to

convert
432 mb into Mw. No empirical relations for converting Ms and ML are available

for this
433 polygon. Empirical equations derived by Erdik et al., 2012 for the Middle east

are used
434 for conversion of other magnitude scales into Mw. Figs. (5 and 6) shows the

historical
435 and instrumental seismicity of the Arabian Plate constituting the four

studied
436 polygons.

437

3 Catalogue
438 Declustering

Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) is usually based on the

439

postulation
440 that earthquake occurrence follows a Poissonian distribution (independent

in time
441 and space). Therefore, dependent events (foreshocks and aftershocks) should

be recognized
442 and eliminated from the original catalogue through a declustering

process.
443 This results in a declustered version of the catalogue, containing the

independent
444 main shocks only. The declustering is performed in the current study

using
445three commonly used algorithms namely Gardner and Knopoff, 1974;

Urhammer,
446 1986, and Burkhard and Grunthal 2009. For these three algorithm,

18
earthquakes
447 situated within specific time and space windows, defined based upon the

magnitude
448 of the main shock, are considered dependent events and eliminated from

the catalogues.
449

Windows of Gardner and Knopoff (1974) defined 1469 clusters, including 6376
450

independent
451 events with 6.02% contribution to the total seismic moment in the

catalogue.
452 Applying Uhrhammer (1986) algorithm, 1025 clusters were recognized

with453
8414 independent earthquakes. The seismic moment released by these 1025

clusters
454 is 4.75% of the total seismic moment release. Bukhard and Grunthal (2009)

approach
455 identified 1649 clusters, leaving 5144 independent events. The seismic

moment
456 released by these removed clusters is 6.53% of the total seismic moment

release.
457 The declustering effect decreases as the earthquake size increases (Fig. 7) and

becomes
458 negligible for Mw ≥ 6.0.

Uhrhammer (1986) algorithm is the most conservative, as it identifies less

459

dependent
460 events leading to higher seismicity rates. Thus, for the upcoming PSHA for

the 461
Arabian Plate, Uhrhammer (1986) algorithm will be given a higher weight and a

sensitivity
462 analysis should be conducted to evaluate the effect of the declustering

process
463 on the Hazard results. The three declustered catalogues can be retrieved from

http:\\www.squ.edu.om/emc/home/ArabianCatalogue.
464

465

4 Catalogue
466 Completeness

Catalogue completeness analysis is a crucial element in PSHA since

467

incompleteness
468 of earthquake data leads to erroneous results. The simple method

provided
469 in Bukhard and Grunthal (2009) is used to find the temporal magnitude

completeness.
470 For each polygon, declustered earthquakes using Uhrhammer (1986)

were471
separated into classes of 0.4 magnitude units. Cumulative numbers of events in

19
each472
magnitude class are plotted versus time. Basically, each magnitude class is

considered
473 complete starting from the year on the graph where the ascent of

cumulative
474 number of earthquakes begins to show significant change. Fig. (8) shows

an example
475 for the earthquake completeness with time. The temporal completeness

for each
476 magnitude class is summarized in Table 2, showing considerable changes in

data477
completeness from region to region in the Arabian Plate.

478

5 Focal
479 Mechanism Solutions

Earthquake focal mechanism is an important piece of data that can provide

480

important
481 information about the fault type engaged in the earthquake generation

process,
482 strike of the causing fault, and thus providing great information about the

activity
483 of the region. These information are important for those interested in the

active
484faulting characteristics of the earthquakes and in examining focal mechanism

forecasting
485 models.

Available focal mechanisms have been added to the current unified catalogue.
486

To 487
be consistent, focal mechanisms provided by special studies were given the

highest
488 priority, followed by Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT) catalogue

data,489
which are available for Mw greater than 5.5 events since 1976, ZUR, and NEIC

of the
490 USGS catalogue. If more than one special study is available for the same

earthquake,
491 the most recent one is selected for insertion. Unlike GCMT catalogue,

most492of the special studies are lacking for the uncertainties in focal mechanism

parameters.
493 The special studies included in the current catalogue are: Jackson et al.,

1995;
494Salamon, et al., 2003; Canitz and Ucer, 1967; Byrne et al., 1992; Talebian and

Jackson,
495 2004; Fairhead and Girdler, 1970; Chandra, 1984; Paul and Sean, 1987; Ni

and 496
Barazangi, 1986; McKenzie, 1972; Baker et al., 1993; Badawy, 2001; Priestley et

20
 al.,1994;
497 Berberian et al., 2001; Jackson et al., 2002; Abou Elenean, 1997;

Hamzehloo,
498 2005; El-Hadidy, 2006; Al-Marzooqi et al., 2007; Nissen et al. 2007;

Lashak,
499 2010; Roustaei et al. 2010; and Abdulnaby et al., 2014.

A total
500of 1652 focal mechanism solutions between 1907 and 2015 are available in the

current
501catalogue. The database that include all the available focal mechanisms from all

the available
502 seismic sources are also available for those like to use a priority scheme

for focal
503 mechanism different from that used herein. This database can be retrieved

from 504
http:\\www.squ.edu.om/emc/home/ArabianCatalogue. Additional references to

that mentioned
505 above may found in this original database. Focal mechanisms for

earthquakes
506 greater than Mw 5.5 all over the region of interest are shown in (Fig. 9a,

9b, and
5079c).

508

6 Discussion
509

Compiling a long, unified, and homogeneous earthquake catalogue is a crucial

510

initial511
step for any seismic hazard analysis. A strenuous efforts were exerted to

compile,
512 homogenize all the data, and to develop a priority scheme according to which

the inputs
513 to the current catalogue were selected. Enormous information including

special
514studies, local, regional and international catalogues form the basis for the

earthquake
515 catalogue of the Arabian Plate and its surrounding. These catalogues cover

different
516 time and space spans, and use different magnitude types. Some of these

catalogues
517 change their earthquake parameters frequently, therefore, the current

parameters
518 may not exactly matched with future issues of these databases.

Most of the local and regional catalogues that used in the current study whether
519

provided
520 personally or derived online are lacking for uncertainties on the earthquake

key 521
parameters. The few catalogues that provide uncertainties are using totally

21
different
522 criteria; some give quantitative, while others provide qualitative evaluation

of uncertainties.
523 The evaluation of uncertainties for each earthquake in the current

catalogue
524 is beyond our scope. The references for each earthquake parameter is

available
525 in the current catalogue, so readers can check these references for the

availability
526 of uncertainty for specific earthquake.

The minimum value of Ms to be converted to Mw is selected to be 4.0, although

527

smaller
528 values of Ms may resulted in Mw larger than 4.0. This is imposed because

some
529smaller Ms in the ISC or USGS bulletins are very false as they are relying on

extremely
530 few seismic stations. Therefore, the number of small earthquakes in Zagros

area531
(for example) is less than that of Shavar et al., 2013, who inserted earthquakes

with532
Ms less than 4.0 in their catalogue.

The spatial distribution of the seismicity is shown in Fig. 6. Most of the

533

seismicity
534 is concentrated along the Arabian Plate tectonic borders, within specific

seismogenic
535 belts, reflecting different tectonic environments. These seismic belts are:

Makran
536 Subduction Zone, Zagros Fold Thrust Belt, East Anatolian Region, Aqaba-

Dead
537Sea Fault, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Owen Fracture Zone. 221 earthquakes

with538
Mw larger than 6.0 occurred in the area of interest between 1900 and 2015.

Despite
539 of the low seismic activity displayed by Makran Subduction Zone, it is

capable
540 of generating devastating earthquakes. The largest reported earthquake

occurred
541 in 1945, reaching Mw 8.1. It was tsunamigenic event with EW rupture

orientation
542 and about 200 km long (Byrne et al., 1992).

Although many earthquakes were given constant depth in their location process,
543

some
544deeper events (50-150 km) are observed along the Makran area, confirming

convergence
545 and subduction beneath the Eurasian Plate. The remaining areas of the

Arabian
546 Plate are characterized by their shallow depth seismicity.

22
 Attention was paid to the 1483 event, which was reported by Aubin (1973) to be
547

responsible
548 for the destruction of Qalhat City, Sultanate of Oman. This event was

preceded
549 by a foreshock sequence that started in November 1482 in Hormuz. Two

different
550 points of view regarding the location and time of occurrence of this event are

present.
551 The first is provided by Ambraseys and Melville (1982), who suggested

western
552 Makran area to be the host of this event (Fig. 10), based upon damage of tall

buildings
553 in Hormuz constituting minarets of mosques and wind towers of houses in

addition
554 to the reports about the destruction of Qalhat City in Oman at near time.

They estimated a surface wave magnitude of 7.7 for this earthquake and categorized it
555

as having
556 a rough location. The second opinion is provided by Musson (2009), who

concluded
557 that Qalhat was damaged in 1497 with a local event of Mw 6.0. Lacking the

reasonable
558 basis to assume that the 1483 event was felt in Sultanate of Oman, it

becomes
559 entirely a local event to Hormuz with Mw 6.0. The numerous foreshocks that

felt 560
in Hormuz made the second point of view more persuasive. Therefore, this event

is considered
561 in the current study as two separate local earthquakes of magnitude 6.0

in Hormuz
562 and Qalhat in 1483 and 1497 respectively (Fig. 10).

There is no historical evidence for great earthquakes in Zagros and most

563

earthquakes
564 are believed to occur without coseismic surface rupture on the blind

active
565thrust faults (Berberian 1995b; Hessami et al., 2003). Zagros earthquakes rarely

exceed
566 magnitude 7.0, but are normally smaller.

Relatively low seismic activity is observed inside the Arabian Plate, motivating
567

many
568authors to consider the Arabian Plate as a stable craton (e.g. Johnson et al.,

1994;
569Aldama et al., 2009; Deif et al., 2013). The seismicity inside the Arabian Plate

is mainly
570 due to Palmyra fault systems, Abdel Aziz-Sinjar area, opening of the Red

Sea,571
the volcanic activity in Yemen and the Arabian shield.

23
 An earthquake with Mw 5.2 is reported by ISC in 1971 in the Eastern part of
572

Sultanate
573 of Oman. This event was not locally felt, indicating a probable erroneous

hypocentral
574 parameters due to the lack of Omani seismic stations in this time. This

events
575is included in the current catalogue, and to be used with caution.

Almost no instrumental information with magnitude greater than 4.0 was

576

available
577 on the seismicity along the Gulf of Aqaba until 1983, when an earthquake

swarm
578 including more than 500 events with maximum Mw of 5.2 occurred. Two

more seismic sequences occurred in 1993 and 1995 with maximum Mw 6.1 and 7.3
579

respectively.
580 The main shock of 1995 sequence was followed by a series of about 6

months
581 aftershocks activity (Baer et al., 2008). These activities indicate that the

seismic
582 activity in the Gulf of Aqaba occurs mainly in the form of swarms and

sequences.
583 This activity contradicts the earlier apparent aseismic nature of the Gulf of

Aqaba,
584 but concurs with the field evidences for recent crustal movement (Garfunkel,

1970).
585 The occurrence of these seismic sequences makes the Gulf of Aqaba the most

active
586part of the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea fault.

Although the apparent low seismicity to the north of Gulf of Aqaba at Wadi
587

Araba,
588 four large earthquakes are thought to have occurred in 1068, 1212, 1293 and

1458589with estimated magnitudes comparable to the 1995 event (Poirier and Taher,

1980;
590Garfunkel et al., 1981; Klinger et al., 2000). No large earthquakes occurred in

this 591
area after 1458 event. The epicentral location of the 1068 earthquake with Mw

7.4 592
is controversy: many investigators locate it in the Gulf of Aqaba region, northern

Red593
Sea (e.g., Zilberman et al., 2005; Haynes et al., 2006; El-Isa, 2015), others locate

it more
594 than 150 km to the east of Gulf of Aqaba in Tabuk area (e.g., Ambraseys et

al., 595
1994). Since Ambraseys et al., 1994 is given the highest priority in the current

24
study,
596his epicenter parameters were used in the current catalogue, making Tabuk area

the location
597 of the largest seismic event inside the Arabian Peninsula

Many locations in the western part of the Arabian Plate are volcanically active
598

and 599
associated with moderate earthquake activity. Earthquakes of 1256, 1293 and the

well600
known earthquake sequence occurred in 2009 are associated with the volcanic

activity
601 around Al-Madinah. The sequence of 2009 is relatively well studied and

precisely
602 located due to the existence of the enhanced Saudi seismological network,

which
603is operated by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS). The sequence of 1256 looks

larger
604than 2009 sequence, with prominent volcanic eruption extended for three

months.
605 The exact location of 1256 crater is unknown, but many earthquakes were

felt 606
in Al-Madinah, causing the collapse of number of houses. The 1293 sequence was

associated
607 with a minor volcanic eruption Near Al-Madinah (Ambraseys et al., 1994).

Yemen has been affected occasionally by earthquakes along the Red Sea, its
608

coastal
609 zone, and inland. The Dhamar event, 1982 with Mw 6.2, which caused a wide

damage,
610 fatalities, and land deformation, took place in a recent volcanic region. It is

followed
611 by a relatively high level of aftershocks that extended for about one month.

Utsu (1990) reported the occurrence of two earthquakes with M=6.2 and 7.4 in
612

the 613
southern Red Sea in 1884. All other studies that dealt with the seismicity of the

Red614
Sea include only the 6.2 event. The 7.4 earthquake is a relatively recent event,

and 615
thus it should be widely felt and reported, which is not the case. Careful

investigation
616 about this event and discussions of El-Isa (2015) leads to the discarding

of this
617event.

Regarding the focal mechanism solution, the Makran Subduction Zone and
618

Cyprian
619 Arc are dominated by thrust faulting, which accompanied in some events

with620
small strike slip component. Earthquakes of Zagros occur at less than 20 km

25
depth
621and are mostly associated with high angle reverse faulting with dips in the range

622 30 o and 60 o and with strikes parallel to the strike of the fold-thrust belt at the
between

surface
623 (e.g., Jackson and McKenzie, 1984; Gillard and Wyss, 1995; Reilinger et al.,

2006;
624 Deif and El-Hussain, 2012). Some of these reverse mechanisms are

accompanied
625 with minor strike-slip components. However, the mechanisms of the

most626
northern part of Zagros Zone show some normal faulting or normal faulting with

strike-slip
627 component behavior due to the back arc activity.

Faulting process along Owen Fracture Zone is dominated by strike slip

628

movement
629 . In East Anatolian fault, focal mechanisms show almost pure strike slip

movement
630 with a few normal-faulting mechanisms. Focal mechanism solutions for

the 631
large events in the seismic sequences of the Gulf of Aqaba show a left lateral

strike-slip
632 mechanism in the NS direction and to less extent a normal faulting (Abdel

Rahman
633 et al., 2009). Fault plane solutions in the Gulf of Suez are commonly

revealing
634 movements along normal faults with strike-slip components. Along the Red

Sea 635
and Gulf of Aden, focal mechanism solutions show both normal and strike-slip

faulting,
636 indicating the activity of their margins and the perpendicular transform

faults.
637This mechanism supports the extension nature of the stress field in the Red Sea

and 638
Gulf of Aden.

639

7 Conclusions
640

A compiled earthquake catalogue for the Arabian Plate and its surrounding
641

during
642the period from 19 to 2015 AD is compiled using several, local, regional and

international
643 databases. This catalogue was homogenized in terms of moment

magnitude
644 and is declustered to include only independent events. The catalogue was

investigated
645 for the earthquake completeness with time to obtain proper recurrence

26
relationships
646 for seismic hazard assessment in the Arabian Peninsula. It is the first

comprehensive
647 earthquake catalogue that covers the entire Arabian Plate. This unified

catalogue
648 is believed to enhance future studies and models of seismicity in the

Arabian
649 Plate. As the earthquake cataloging is an ongoing process in which persistent

improvement
650 of the old catalogues should take place. Future studies will indicate how

the current
651 catalogue should be enhanced.

652

Acknowledgments
653

The authors are deeply thankful for Professor Abdullah El-Amri, King Saud
654

University
655 Saudi Arabia for providing the local earthquake catalogue of Saudi Arabia,

which
656occupies the majority of the Arabia intercontinental lands. Thanks are also due

to Professor
657 Erdal Safak from Kandilli Observatory and to Mr. Khamis Al-Shamsi

from658National Center of Meteorology and Seismology for providing their local

catalogues.
659 Our sincere thanks and appreciations are due to a number of SQU alumni

for their
660 valuable help and effort in this project. We also like to express our gratitude

for 661
the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and assistance to complete

this 662
work.

663

664

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905 Mediterranean region. Geophysical Journal International 155, 149–

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913 of Turkey and surrounding area (2100 B.C.–1900 A.D.). Technical Report,

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919 Notes, 57-61

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Sea 928
Rift, Israel. Tectonophysics 408, 79–99

929

930

931

39
Fig.932
1. Main tectonic structures of the Arabian plate. ADSF = Aqaba-Dead Sea fault.

compiled
933 from Johnson 1998; Brew 2001; Brew et al. 2001; Gullen et al. 2002;

Hessami
934 et al. 2003; Bosworth et al. 2005; Gomez et al., 2007. Brown lines indicate

the faults.
935

936

Fig.937
2. The polygons delineated for the compilation of the current catalogue. ADSF =

Aqaba-Dead
938 Sea Fault.

939

Fig.940
3. Standard Regression (SR) and Orthogonal Regression (OR) analyzed for Mw-

Ms 941
(top) and Mw-mb (bottom) for ADSF.

942

Fig.943
4. SR, and OR analyzed for the pairs mb-ML for the Aqaba-Dead Sea Fault.

944

Fig.945
5. Historical earthquakes of the Arabian Plate.

946

Fig.947
6. Instrumental recorded earthquakes of the Arabian Plate from 1900 to 2015.

948

Fig.949
7. The declustering effect on the current catalogue: it is negligible for Mw ≥ 6.1

950

Fig.951
8. Cumulative number of events versus time as an example for the period of

completeness
952 for magnitude class 5.2-5.5 at polygons 1 and 2.

953

Fig.954
9a. Focal mechanism solutions for earthquakes with Mw range 5.5-5.6 in the

Arabian
955 plate, beach balls red quadrants denoting compression and the white ones

dilatations.
956

957

40
Fig.958
9b. Focal mechanism solutions for earthquakes with Mw range 5.7-6.0 in the

Arabian
959 plate.

960

Fig.961
9c. Focal mechanism solutions for earthquakes with Mw > 6.0 in the Arabian

plate.
962

963

Fig.964
10. Locations of 1483 earthquake according to Ambraseys and Melville (1982)

and 965
Musson 2009.

966

967

968

41
 969
Fig.970
1.
971
972

42
 973
Fig.974
2.
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990

43
Fig.991
3.
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001

44
 1002
Fig.1003
4.
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023

45
 1024

1025
Fig.1026
5.
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037

46
 1038
1039
1040

1041
Fig.1042
6.
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053

47
 1054
1055
1056
1057

1058
Fig.1059
7.
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076

48
 1077
1078
1079
1080

Polygon 1 Polygon 2

Fig.1081
8.
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101

49
 a
1102
Fig.1103
9a.

50
 b
1104
Fig.1105
9b.
1106
1107

51
 c
1108
Fig.1109
9c.
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119

52
 1120
Fig.1121
10.
1122
1123

53
Table 1
1124

OSR1125
and SR relationships, coefficient of determination, root mean square error, and

LLH1126
for the earthquakes of the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea fault.

Equation R2 RMS error LLH

OSR: Mw =1.016 (±0.078) Ms + 0.353 (±0.208) 0.8 0.309 1.54

OSR: Mw = 1.935 (±0.075) mb - 4.330 (±0.306) 0.84 0.279 1.6

SR: Mw = 0.916 (±0.049) Ms + 0.827 (±0.237) 0.81 0.301 1.39

SR: Mw = 1.726 (±0.039) mb - 3.428 (±0.168) 0.85 0.266 1.44

1127

1128

Table 2
1129

Start1130
year for catalogue completeness for different Magnitude ranges

Magnitude Ranges
Polygon
4-4.3 4.4-4.7 4.8-5.1 5.2-5.5 5.6-5.9 6-6.3 6.4-6.7 6.8-7.1 7.2-7.5

1 1973 1963 1963 1928 1834 1814 1800 1800 1714

2 1970 1964 1926 1882 1817 1707 1085 1085 1085

3 1983 1980 1965 1893 1872 1739 1050 1010 1010

4 1973 1973 1966 1957 1925 1900 1900 1900 1900

1131

1132

1133

54
Highlights
1134

1135

1.
1136A compiled and homogenized earthquake catalogue of the entire Arabian
1137Peninsula is documented.
2.
1138Prepared catalogue for seismic hazard assessment through declustering, period
1139of completeness, and unified Mw is suggested.
3.
1140Various priority schemes are suggested for different parts of the Arabian plate
1141and available depth and focal mechanism are added to the catalogue.

1142

1143

1144

55
Graphical
1145 abstract

1146

1147

1148

56