Deterministic seismic hazard in Egypt

The regional seismic hazard in Egypt is assessed using a deterministic approach based on the computation of synthetic seismograms at a set of gridpoints located at distances of 0.2 from each other. The main input for this computation are earthquake sources and structural models. The earthquake sources are parametrized using focal mechanisms, seismogenic areas and regional seismicity. A number of deep seismic profiles have been used to define the crustal structures. Similar sets of gravity profiles have been used to define the density of the layers. The peak displacement (DMAX), peak velocity (VMAX) and design ground acceleration (DGA) are chosen and plotted to construct the seismic hazard maps. There are similarities between computed and observed amplitudes of ground motion in terms of their values and spatial distributions. The results obtained from the deterministic and probabilistic approaches are comparable. The areas of high seismic hazard level are of great socio-economic importance.