The investigation of geodynamics parameters in the south of Egypt using geodetic and earthquake activities

ABSTRACT Egypt’s southern region has significant economic and historical importance. However, due to the lack of data, this area has not gotten sufficient geodynamic research. Minor, to moderate earthquake activity along tectonic structures originating in the region from several faults is felt in southern Egypt. The study’s geographical scope includes the Red Sea coast, the Eastern Desert, the Western Desert, Aswan, and Nasser Lake, and it lies between 22° and 27° 30 N and 25° to 34° E. In this paper, the crustal deformation and earthquake events in the southern part of Egypt have been studied. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations taken by Egyptian Permanent Geodetic Network (EPGN) have been processed and adjusted for the period 2010–2019 using Bernese v.5.2 software. In addition, we investigate the source mechanism of the significant earthquakes ≥3 magnitudes using the waveform data recorded by the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) during the period 2012–2019. The focal mechanisms of these earthquakes were constructed with high reliability based on the P-wave first motion polarities. The results show that the average residual velocity concerning Nubian fixed is about 0.5 ± 0.25 mm in the east direction and 1 ± 0.3 mm in the north direction.