M7.2 Earthquake Near Nuwaybi‘a, Egypt, Nov 22, 1995

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

The earthquake

Magnitude: 7.2 (Mw, moment), major
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Wed, Nov 22, 1995, 7:15 AM GMT+3
UTC: 1995-11-22 04:15:11 UTC
Depth: 10.0 km (6.2 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 28.826° N, 34.799° E
Region: Egypt
Strongest shaking: IX, violent shaking
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
7.2	Mw, moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Preferred · Reviewed
7.18	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
7.2	Mwc, centroid moment	Global CMT project	Preliminary
7.27	Me, energy	Choy, USGS energy magnitude	Reviewed
7.1	Mww, W-phase moment	Duputel, W-phase inversion	Preliminary

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 5426), matched to this event by time and place.

Deaths: 11
Injuries: 47
Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
Houses destroyed: Few (about 1 to 50) with its tsunami and other effects

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake The tsunami it caused

From Wikipedia

The 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake (also known as Nuweiba earthquake) occurred on November 22 at 06:15 local time (04:15 UTC) and registered 7.3 on the Mw scale. The epicenter was located in the central segment of the Gulf of Aqaba, the narrow body of water that separates Egypt's Sinai Peninsula from the western border of Saudi Arabia. At least 8 people were killed and 30 were injured in the meizoseismal area.

The earthquake occurred along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) fault system, an active tectonic plate boundary with seismicity that is characterized by long-running quiescent periods with occasional large and damaging earthquakes, along with intermittent earthquake swarms. It was the strongest tectonic event in the area for many decades and caused injuries, damage, and deaths throughout the Levant and is also thought to have remotely triggered a series of small to moderate earthquakes 500 kilometers (310 mi) to the north of the epicenter. In the aftermath of the quake, several field investigations set out to determine the extent of any surface faulting, and the distribution of aftershocks was analyzed.

Text from Wikipedia, “1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted as written; the full article has the rest.

The article is about the earthquake NOAA’s record describes, matched to this one by date, place and magnitude.

Wikidata records: 8 deaths and 30 injured. These are counts entered by Wikidata’s editors; they may differ from the official count, and this page never adds them to another figure. Q4115120, CC0.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

At least eight people killed and 30 injured in the epicentral region including two killed and 11 injured at Nuwaybi. Damage occurred in many parts of northeastern Egypt as far away as Cairo. One person was killed and two slightly injured at Al Bad, Saudi Arabia. Some damage occurred at Al Bad, Al Ula and Haql, Saudi Arabia. One person died of a heart attack, several people were injured and substantial damage, power outages and liquefaction occurred at Elat, Israel. Some damage also occurred at Jerusalem, Israel and Aqaba, Jordan. Felt from Sudan to Lebanon. Felt at Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq. Also felt by people in high-rise buildings at Limassol and Nicosia, Cyprus. Possible tsunami observed at Aqaba, Jordon. Complex event observed on broadband displacement seismograms. FAULT PLANE SOLUTION: P-Waves NP1:Strike=280 Dip=75 Slip=-161 NP2:Strike=185 Dip=72 Slip=-16 Principal Axes: (T) Plg=2 Azm=52 (P) Plg=24 Azm=143 Comment: The focal mechanism is well controlled and corresponds to strike-slip faulting with a moderate normal component. The preferred fault plane is not determined. RADIATED ENERGY No. of sta: 25 Focal mech. F Energy 2.0+0.4*10**15 Nm MOMENT TENSOR SOLUTION Dep 6 No. of sta: 38 Moment Tensor; Scale 10**19 Nm Mrr=-1.43 Mtt=-0.99 Mff=2.42 Mrt=3.00 Mrf=-0.15 Mtf=-3.28 Principal axes: (T) Val=4.92 Plg=17 Azm=53 (N) Val=0.00 Plg=48 Azm=304 (P) Val=-4.92 Plg=38 Azm=157 Best Double Couple:Mo=4.9*10**19 NP1:Strike=188 Dip=51 Slip=-17 NP2:Strike=289 Dip=77 Slip=-139 CENTROID, MOMENT TENSOR (HRV) Data Used: GSN M.W.: 59S,162C Centroid Location: Origin Time 04:15:26.2 0.1 Lat 29.07N 0.01 Lon 34.73E 0.01 Dep 18.4 0.4 Half-duration 11.0 Moment Tensor; Scale 10**19 Nm Mrr=-1.36 0.03 Mtt=-3.26 0.02 Mff=4.62 0.03 Mrt=3.89 0.21 Mrf=0.09 0.18 Mtf=-4.49 0.02 Principal Axes: (T) Val=6.97 Plg=12 Azm=62 (N) Val=0.48 Plg=56 Azm=314 (P) Val=-7.45 Plg=31 Azm=159 Best Double Couple:Mo=7.2*10**19 NP1:Strike=196 Dip=59 Slip=-15 NP2:Strike=294 Dip=77 Slip=-149

From the USGS event page for usp0007788. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: IX, violent shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 121.1% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 4.7 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

No one has reported feeling this quake to the USGS.

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Strike-slip
Moment magnitude: 7.1 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 293°, dip 85°, rake 205°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 201°, dip 64°, rake -4°
Landslide alert: Orange
Liquefaction alert: Green

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Depth from: OPERATOR_ASSIGNED

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 4.2 and up: 43 in the 60 days after this one and 0 in the 30 days before it.

After

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event usp0007788 (also filed as choy19951122041511, gcmtm112295a, gcmt19951122041511, duputel112295a, atlas19951122041513, iscgem70282). Read Thu, Oct 1, 2026, 8:07 AM UTC.