Abstract
This paper presents new findings that contribute to the understanding of the deformational style of the Wadi Shueib Structure (WSS) and the Amman-Halabat Structure (AHS) and their relationship with the regional tectonic regime of the Dead Sea Transform Fault (DSTF). Our research utilized Landsat-8 OLI imagery for the automatic extraction of lineaments, and our lineament mapping was facilitated by processing and digital image enhancement using principal component analysis (PCA). Our data revealed a relatively higher density of lineaments along the extension of the major faults of the WSS and AHS. However, a relatively lower density of lineaments was shown in areas covered by recent deposits. Two major lineament trends were observed (NNE-SSW and NW-SE) in addition to a minor one (NE-SW), and most of these lineaments are parallel to the orientation of the WSS and AHS. We offer the supposition that the DSTF has merged into the major faults of the WSS and AHS. We further suppose that these faults were reactivated as a restraining bend composed of active strike-slip fault branches that developed due to the NNW-SSE-trending Dead Sea transpressional stress field. Depending on the relationship between the direction of the WSF and AHF strands and the regional tectonic displacement along the DSTF, thrust components are present on faults with horsetail geometry, and these movements are accompanied by folding and uplifting. Thus, the major faults of the WSS and AHS represent a contractional horsetail geometry with associated folding and thrusting deformation.
Highlights
Strike-slip movement is a common process of deformation in both the continental and oceanic crust that exists at a wide range of scales
Our results demonstrated a good correlation between and distribution of the structural geology from the published literature and digitalized geological map lineaments and the extracted lineaments in this study, which were validated through geological field visits in the study area
It is worth noting here that the comparison between the extracted lineament map and the published fault map using geographic information system (GIS) matching techniques showed that 60% of the lineament segments/lines in the extracted lineaments map were properly identified in the study area
Summary
Strike-slip movement is a common process of deformation in both the continental and oceanic crust that exists at a wide range of scales. Several structural features have been recognized within/around strike-slip fault systems, such as horsetail structures (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]). Several previous studies on the strike-slip mechanism focused on the development of horsetail structures in shear zones and were interpreted by the simple shear model [1,2,4]. The simple shear model was utilized in the study area of our research
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