Evaluation of Thermal anomaly Preceding Northern Red Sea Earthquake, the 16th June 2020

Abstract

On the 16th June, 2020, a moderate earthquake (Mw = 5.2) hit the Northern Red Sea region, Egypt, that was felt throughout the Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh cities and the surrounding areas without any damages. The thermal anomaly before the earthquakes was widely studied with satellite data, such as NOAA/AVHRR and MODIS. The case study aims to monitor and demonstrate the possibility of any variation of the thermal anomaly of sea surface temperature (SST) before and after the 16th June 2020 earthquake and to correlate the results with the previous heat flow study (deep thermal action). The Daytime/Nighttime (SST) data are retrieved from the OBPG serves as a Distributed Active Archive Center (OB. DAAC). The outputs indicated a thermal anomaly on the June 12th, 2020 a few days before the earthquake, covered a large area around the epicenter 60 km impact area, and reached a high value on the 15th June 2020, one day before the earthquake. For the deep thermal action of the entire crust, the earthquake frequency distributions presumed from the reviewed catalogue indicated that the peak of the seismicity is concentrated close to the center of the rift axis in the Northern Red Sea. The heat flow measurements are increased toward the center of the Red Sea rift and decreased toward both sides, generating some partial melt of the rocks and producing crustal subsidence at the center of the Red Sea rift. These results are compatible with the pattern of the seismic activity and heat flow effect around the epicenter. It could be considered as a short-term precursor of the earthquake.