Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Global and Planetary Change journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gloplacha Invited research article Tectonic insights into the Arabian-African region inferred from a comprehensive examination of satellite gravity big data Lev Eppelbaum a, ⁎ , Youri Katz b , Jaroslav Klokočník c , Jan Kostelecký d , Valery Zheludev e , Zvi Ben-Avraham a a Dept. of Geosciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel b Steinhardt Museum of Natural History & National Research Center, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel c Astronomical Inst., Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-25165 Ondřejov, Czech Republic d Research Inst. of Geodesy, Topography and Cartography, CZ-25066 Zdiby, Czech Republic e School of Computer Sciences, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Satellite gravimetry Transformations Tectonics Geodynamics Northern-Eastern Africa Near and Middle East ABSTRACT Modern satellite gravimetry is now considered one of the most powerful and effective instrument for regional tectono-geodynamic zonation. Satellite gravity observations clearly fit the definition of 'big data' because of their volume and variety. The Arabian – NE African region discussed in this article has intricate geodynamic features including active rift zones, high seismic activity and collision processes, a rich structural pattern made up of the mosaic block system of continental and oceanic crusts of different ages, as well as several of the greatest gravity anomalies and complex magnetic anomaly mosaics. This region also has the world's main hydrocarbon resources and a vast number of other economic deposits. A comprehensive analysis of these satellite derived gravity data were used to construct a series of new maps that localize the key properties of the lithosphere of the region. A careful examination of numerous geological sources and their combined inspection with satellite derived gravity and other geophysical data resulted in this new integrated tectonic map of the Arabian-African region. An analysis of the series of gravity map transformations and certain geological indicators document the significant geodynamic features of the region. 1. Introduction Satellite derived geophysical (primarily gravity) data constitute one of today's most powerful tools for the regional tectono-geophysical examination of the Earth's crust and upper mantle. The enormous amount of satellite derived gravity data (from various satellite mis- sions) and their extraordinary variety clearly make these observations fall into the category of 'big data' (e.g., Ahmed, 2015; De Mauro et al., 2016). Examination of satellite data usually includes their segmentation and transformation and careful tectono-structural interpretation (e.g., Eppelbaum and Katz, 2015a, 2015b). Advanced combinations of the satellite data with results of "on-land" tectono-geophysical studies can improve our understanding of the Earth's dynamics. It is known that regional long-term seismological prognosis, search strategies for economic deposits and many other important geological- geophysical goals are based appreciably on the tectonic-structural and other reconstructions derived from combined tectono-geophysical cor- relations. Innumerable satellite derived gravity observations contain unique geophysical information that is often masked by various kinds of noise. This article discusses the key advantages of different methods of gravity data processing (mainly oriented toward 'big data') and their interpretation, including non-conventional techniques. Some studies of the tectono-geophysical zonation in the Eastern Mediterranean (both sea and land) with satellite derived gravity field analysis (Eppelbaum and Katz, 2015a, 2015b) have reported the high effectiveness of these data to delineate different tectono-structural units. For this reason, a satellite derived gravity field examination was applied here to the huge tectonic complex constituting the Arabian- African region (Fig. 1). The gravity field re-tracked from the Geosat and ERS-1 altimetry (e.g., Sandwell and Smith, 2009) was subjected here to different methodologies, each of which can reveal different tectonic and geodynamic features of the region. The area covered by this study (geographic coordinates: 0°–38° North, and 30°–57° East) occupies the giant region of the Near and Middle East, Eastern (and partially Northern) Africa (see Fig. 1). In total, this area extends for about 12 million km 2 and its regional tec- tonic and geodynamic peculiarities have been analyzed by many re- searchers (e.g., Ben-Avraham et al., 1979; Stacy et al., 1980; Said, 1990; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.10.011 Received 24 May 2017; Received in revised form 10 October 2017; Accepted 26 October 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: levap@post.tau.ac.il (L. Eppelbaum). Global and Planetary Change 171 (2018) 65–87 Available online 14 November 2017 0921-8181/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T