Aftershock decay of three recent strong earthquakes in the Levant

Aftershock sequences are studied from three recent strong earthquakes in the Levant: the M_W = 7.1 earthquake of 22 November 1995 and the M(L) = 5.8 earthquake of 3 August 1993, both in the Gulf of Aqaba, and the M_W = 6.8 earthquake of 9 October 1996 off the southwest coast of Cyprus. The modified Omori's law provides a good fit to the decay of aftershock activity for both events. The two sequences from the Gulf of Aqaba have rather low p values (0.90 in 1993 and 0.75 in 1995), reflecting slow decay of the aftershock activity. This may be attributed to low heat flow close to the epicenters. For the Cyprus sequence, the p value is 1.09, similar to that of many other sequences around the globe.