The Gulf of Aqaba Fault is the southernmost marine segment of the great Dead Sea Transform, lying beneath the narrow gulf that separates the Sinai Peninsula from northwestern Arabia. It is a left-lateral strike-slip system where the Arabian Plate slides northward past the Sinai sub-plate, with the gulf itself formed as a series of deep pull-apart basins along the fault.
Because the fault runs offshore in a series of stepping segments, its ruptures can be complex and can displace the sea floor. The region hosts the resort and port cities of Aqaba, Eilat, Nuweiba and Taba, all built close to a highly active tectonic boundary.
The 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake (magnitude ~7.3) was the largest instrumentally recorded event in the area, damaging coastal towns in Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The rupture illuminated the pull-apart structure of the gulf and confirmed that this marine tip of the Dead Sea Transform is capable of powerful, damaging earthquakes.