Dating and correlation of the Quaternary fluvial terraces in Syria, applied to tectonic deformation in the region

Abstract

New data on location, height, and composition of terraces of the El-Kabir and Orontes rivers in Syria are represented. By combined use of paleontological, archaeological, paleomagnetic, and radio-isotopic methods, ages of these river terraces are estimated and they are correlated with the Euphrates River terraces. The age of the terraces is defined more precisely by evidence of synchronism of the El-Kabir alluvial terraces and the marine terraces of the Mediterranean coast. The average rates of incision during different time intervals were estimated in the studied valleys and their segments using relative height of the terraces. This gives the possibility of approximately estimating a rate of the Quaternary uplift in different tectonic provinces of Syria as well as rates of vertical movements on the Lattaqieh (the El-Kabir valley), Hama (the Orontes valley), and Euphrates (the Euphrates valley) faults. The rates of incision were usually small in the earlier stages of the valley formation and increased later. The Middle and Late Pleistocene rates of the valley incision reach ∼220–280 mm/ky in the El-Kabir valley (the Coastal Range-anticline), ∼80–130 mm/ky in the Orontes valley and the Euphrates upstream of the Assad Reservoir (the mobile platformal Aleppo Block), and ∼25–30 mm/ky in the Euphrates valley downstream of the Assad Reservoir (southwestern side of the Mesopotamian Foredeep).