Geodynamics implication of GPS and satellite altimeter and gravity observations to the Eastern Mediterranean

The Eastern Mediterranean region is one of the interested regions from both tectonic and seismic point of views. It shows an active geologic structure attributed to the tectonic movement of the African and Eurasian plates from one side and the Arabian plate from other side. This tectonic setting is attributed with continuous seismological activity, which affects almost all the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean including Egypt. Crustal deformation as deduced from both European and Egyptian permanent GPS networks provides significant horizontal deformation velocities along this region. GPS crustal deformation parameters were able to reveal the complication of the deformation of the studied region. Spatial gravity map of the selected region indicates important mass discontinuities zones correlated well with the seismological and deformation activities. Temporal gravity variation as computed from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) of the considered region were able to determine important mass redistribution zones and shed more light on its geodynamics pattern. Results show important zones of mass discontinuity in this region correlated with the seismological activities and temporal gravity variations agree with the crustal deformation obtained from GPS observations. The current study indicates that satellite gravity data is a valuable source of data in understanding the geodynamical behavior of the studied region and that satellite gravity data is an important contemporary source of data in the geodynamical studies