The Red Sea is the most recent example of an incipient ocean, formed by the Oligocene intra-continental break-up that separated Arabia from Africa (ref). It provides a unique opportunity to study the processes of continental breakup and the formation of mid-ocean-ridge (MOR). Several indicators confirm the activity of a MOR along the central-southern parts of the Red Sea, which are somewhat absent north of 23.5° N., leading to debates regarding the age and extent of the MOR along different regions of the Red Sea.
In this contribution I characterize the seismicity in the Red Sea, using > 10,000 events continuously recorded since 1962 (ISC Bulletin), aiming to distinguish styles of seismicity along its length. Reported magnitudes are converted to ML to standardize the catalog. The results shows both similarities and difference between four regions of the Red Sea. The Northern Red Sea and Zabargard regions shows higher rates of events but are characterized by low magnitude events whereas the Central-Southern and Southern most Red Sea are characterized by lower rates and stronger magnitudes. At all regions the seismic activity is focused close to the axis of the Red Sea and quite similar seismic depths around 30 km. 65 clustered events detected in the Red Sea using β-statistics. Most of the clusters occurred east to the axis of the Red Sea, up to 40 km from the axis. Cluster compactness are quite similar along the Red Sea with larger and more spread clusters in the northern parts. Simple Bath law examination as well as more sophisticated methods reveal that swarm type of seismicity dominate all regions of the Red Sea. I compare the results of the Red Sea to other worldwide slow spreading MORs and discus its implications.