Hypsometric integral for the identification of neotectonic and lithology differences in low tectonically active area (Utica-Mateur region, north-eastern Tunisia)

Abstract

The present work tests the use of hypsometric integral (HI) in identifying neotectonic and lithology signals in the Utica-Mateur basin (north-eastern Tunisia), a region recognised by low deformation rates. We computed HI values using three digital elevation models (DEMs) of 10, 30 and 90 m pixel resolution. We extracted maximum, minimum and mean elevations from each DEM. The obtained results reveal that the HI spatial distributions did not demonstrate clear spatial patterns and did not correlate with geological substrates. We also find that the distribution of HI is independent of the DEM resolution, but are influenced by the size of the moving window. By applying the hot spot analysis (G*i -statistics) on extracted HI data, we find two main clusters with high (hot spots) and low (cold spots) HI values. These hot spots correspond mainly to active faults and coincide with shallow earthquake clusters in the study area.