17 - Structural styles along the Dead Sea Fault

Abstract

The Dead Sea fault is a left-lateral transform plate boundary separating the Arabian Plate and the Sinai sub-plate. Motion along the fault is not pure strike-slip and the direction of the plate boundary changes several times resulting in areas of transtension and transpression. This is evident by the variable morphology and structure. The fault is divided into two sections which differ by a reversal in the large-scale asymmetry – the southern section from the Gulf of Elat to south of Lebanon (where the eastern side is usually higher than the western side) and a section continuing northward from Lebanon to the Taurus mountain range in Turkey (where the western side is mostly higher than the eastern one). Along strike variations in topography and structure subdivide the southern Dead Sea fault into five segments. From south to north, these are the Gulf of Elat, Arava, Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee and the Hula Valley. Deep Asymmetric pull-apart basins, which tend to become shorter and younger in age northwards, formed between left-stepping fault segments of the Dead Sea fault. These basins can be found in topographically lower areas and are separated by structural saddles. Both extensional and compressional features can be found along many of the basins themselves, suggesting that the tectonic regime is more complex than suggested in the simple models.