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Observations of seismic activity in Southern Lebanon

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Abstract

Recent seismic activity in southern Lebanon is of particular interest since the tectonic framework of this region is poorly understood. In addition, seismicity in this region is very infrequent compared with the Roum fault to the east, which is seismically active. Between early 2008 and the end of 2010, intense seismic activity occurred in the area. This was manifested by several swarm-like sequences and continuous trickling seismicity over many days, amounting in total to more than 900 earthquakes in the magnitude range of 0.5 ≤ M d ≤ 5.2. The region of activity extended in a 40-km long zone mainly in a N-S direction and was located about 10 km west of the Roum fault. The largest earthquake, with a duration magnitude of M d = 5.2, occurred on February 15, 2008, and was located at 33.327° N, 35.406° E at a depth of 3 km. The mean-horizontal peak ground acceleration observed at two nearby accelerometers exceeded 0.05 g, where the strongest peak horizontal acceleration was 55 cm/s2 at about 20 km SE of the epicenter. Application of the HypoDD algorithm yielded a pronounced N-S zone, parallel to the Roum fault, which was not known to be seismically active. Focal mechanism, based on full waveform inversion and the directivity effect of the strongest earthquake, suggests left-lateral strike-slip NNW-SSE faulting that crosses the NE-SW traverse faults in southern Lebanon.

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Acknowledgements

D. Kadosh, D. Levi, and U. Peled kept the ISN operating. L. Feldman and B. Reich did the initial data processing. We are grateful to S. Marco, U. Schattner, and M. Lazar for constructive comments that improved the manuscript. Some figures in this report were prepared using the GMT program (Wessel and Smith 1991).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Geophysical, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    T. Meirova

  2. Geophysical Institute of Israel, Lod, 71100, Israel

    R. Hofstetter

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  1. T. Meirova
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  2. R. Hofstetter
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Correspondence to T. Meirova.

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Meirova, T., Hofstetter, R. Observations of seismic activity in Southern Lebanon. J Seismol 17, 629–644 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-012-9343-2

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