The morphotectonic structure of the lower Jordan Valley – an active segment of the Dead Sea Rift

Abstract

The pioneering morphotectonic study of young structures and movements in the central segment of the Dead Sea Rift, along the lower Jordan Valley, included analysis of the relief, drainage network, and remote sensing images. The Dead Sea Rift is the major transform along which the Ara- bian plate has moved sinistrally with respect to the African plate about 100 km from the Neogene to the Recent. The lower Jordan Valley surface is covered by the late Pleistocene Lisan lacustrine Formation and by the Holocene clastic de- posits. The transform in the lower Jordan Valley is composed of three major segments: northern Kinnarot, southern Jeri- cho, and the connecting them Malih. The Kinnarot and the Jericho segments were formed under transtension and both trend N-S; in them elongated pull-apart basins have devel- oped. In these basins clastics and evaporites were accumu- lating since the Late Miocene. The NNE-trending Malih seg- ment was formed under transpression that formed the Malih uplift. Uplifted and subsided areas identified along the lower Jordan Valley indicate vertical rather than lateral motions: almost no evidence of lateral displacement was found there. Dominance of vertical motions suggests that the neotectonic regime was governed by continuous N-S extension of the Israel-Sinai plate and by transverse movements during the Arabian plate "escape". Locations of earthquakes are con- centrated in the Shomeron Triangle. This can be explained by rejuvenation of the Triangle faults induced by ongoing N- S extension of the Sinai sub-plate. N-S extension on the west results in decrease of the rate of the lateral motion along the transform in the lower Jordan Valley.