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Tectonic and Anthropogenic Characteristics of the November 15, 2019 Micro Earthquakes Sequence, Kuwait

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Geotectonics Aims and scope

Abstract

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 earthquakes ranged between 0.8 and 4.1, and their recorded continued for two consecutive days. In this respect, we conducted a modern geophysical analysis (e.g. waveform-fitting, spectral analysis and faulting focal mechanism) to identify the nature and origin of these earthquakes. The values of moment tensors, double-couple (DC) and non-double-couple components signature, stress drop, and stress ratios are fundamentally calculated, in addition to detailed knowledge of the structural setting of the region where earthquake swarming occurred were also used to distinguish and estimate natural and anthropogenic components percentages of theses earthquakes. The results obtained indicated that these earthquakes sequence has an equivalent anthropogenic to tectonic component, meaning that it occurred as a result of oil extraction, but also occurred on pre-existing faults.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Researchers are ungrateful to the Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN) at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) for providing the earthquake digital data, computers, software’s, other facilitates necessary for the analysis of seismic data. Authors thank Professor Robert B. Herman (Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, USA) for providing us with Computer Program in Seismology (CPS.330). Figures were generated by Generic Mapping Tool (GMT), Grapher software. The researchers deeply thank Professor V. Vavrycuk (Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Science, Prague, Czech Republic) for supplying us with stress tensor software. For the efforts contributed by the aforementioned agencies and professional, our gratitude is extended.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, 13109, Safat, Kuwait

    A. K. Abd el-aal, A. Al-Enezi & F. Al-Jeri

  2. National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, 11918, Helwan, Egypt

    A. K. Abd el-aal & H. Saadalla

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  1. A. K. Abd el-aal
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Abd el-aal, A.K., Al-Enezi, A., Saadalla, H. et al. Tectonic and Anthropogenic Characteristics of the November 15, 2019 Micro Earthquakes Sequence, Kuwait. Geotecton. 55, 112–127 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016852121010039

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