The Dead Sea Fault and related subsurface structures, Gaziantep Basin, southeast Turkey

2000 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. COSKUN ◽  
B. COSKUN

Late Cretaceous and Miocene collisions of the Arabian, Anatolian and Eurasian plates, as shown by widespread ophiolitic exposures along the suture, created favourable geological conditions for the formation of the surface and subsurface structures in the Gaziantep Basin, southeast Turkey. The late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) emplacement of the Kocali–Karadut ophiolite complex induced subsidence in the northwestern zone of the Kastel Basin during the early Alpine Orogeny and influenced the structural evolution of the foreland area. The Dead Sea Fault, which originated in the Red Sea in Miocene time, propagated towards the northwest in the Suez Gulf and the north-northeast in southeast Turkey, and influenced the structural evolution of the Gaziantep Basin. These two major tectonic events produced many thrusts, thrust-related subsurface and surface anticlines, faults, fractures, flower structures and basaltic flows in the area. Geological and geophysical investigations indicate the existence of two important structural phases. The older structures were formed during the late Cretaceous movements, but they have been reactivated by latest Miocene tectonic activities with appearance of the Strands of the Dead Sea Fault in the sedimentary basin. The geothermal studies show also that, as a result of the Tertiary transgressions and volcanic activity, the northern and southern sectors of the Gaziantep Basin underwent differing subsidence and structural histories.

1984 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 577-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. E. R. Lovelock

AbstractThe structure of the northern part of the Arabian platform is reviewed in the light of hitherto unpublished exploration data and the presently accepted kinematic model of plate motion in the region. The Palmyra and Sinjar zones share a common history of development involving two stages of rifting, one in the Triassic–Jurassic and the other during late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times. Deformation of the Palmyra zone during the Mio-Pliocene is attributed to north–south compression on the eastern block of the Dead Sea transcurrent system which occurred after continental collision in the north in southeast Turkey. The asymmetry of the Palmyra zone is believed to result from northward underthrusting along the southern boundary facilitated by the presence of shallow Triassic evaporites. An important NW-SE cross-plate shear zone has been identified, which can be traced for 600 km and which controls the course of the River Euphrates over long distances in Syria and Iraq. Transcurrent motion along this zone resulted in the formation of narrow grabens during the late Cretaceous which were compressed during the Mio-Pliocene. To a large extent, present day structures in the region result from compressional reactivation of old lineaments within the Arabian plate by the transcurrent motion of the Dead Sea fault zone and subsequent continental collision.


Tectonics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Espurt ◽  
S. Brusset ◽  
P. Baby ◽  
P. Henry ◽  
M. Vega ◽  
...  

Subject The implications of the Red Sea-Dead Sea plan. Significance Israel and Jordan on February 26 signed an agreement to facilitate water-sharing and address the depletion of the Dead Sea, which is receding at a rate of about a metre per year. The 900 million dollar World Bank-sponsored 'Seas Canal' deal consists of two main aspects: local water exchange deals, with Jordan providing Israel with desalinated water from Aqaba in exchange for bluewater from the Sea of Galilee in the north; and saltwater transfer from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The Palestinian Authority is not party to the agreement, and awaits a separate deal with Israel. Impacts Prospects for Palestinian-Israeli water negotiations have drastically decreased. Jordan will still need to agree further desalination and cooperation deals in order to meet demand. Water saving efforts will be pushed aside in favour of much more costly desalination. Desalination powered by burning fossil hydrocarbons accelerates global warming.


1954 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-141
Author(s):  
Bo Reicke

The Hebrew scrolls newly discovered near Qumran at the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, which are attracting more and more the attention of New Testament students, are also very important for the evolution of Jewish Gnosticism. One may think especially of the fact that in some of these manuscripts the Hebrew word for ‘knowledge’ and related terms occur with a striking frequency, and that the dualistic cosmology of the new texts seems to be rather like certain fundamental ideas of Gnosticism. Since the archaeological evidence now proves that the Qumran manuscripts are pre-Christian, or were at least written in the first Christian century, one may very well state that new light can now be thrown upon the much debated question of a pre-Christian, Jewish Gnosticism.


1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (16) ◽  
pp. 2063-2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avihu Ginzburg ◽  
Zvi Ben-Avraham

2004 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
N. Vandenberghe ◽  
S. Van Simaeys ◽  
E. Steurbaut ◽  
J.W.M. Jagt ◽  
P. J. Felder

AbstractThe Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary record in the Campine Basin along the southern border of the North Sea Basin is analysed in terms of sequence stratigraphy. All available biostratigraphic, and in some cases, magnetostratigraphic data are used to constrain the sequence chronostratigraphy. The relative geographic extent of the strata is used as an indication of the relative sea level. Tectonic and eustatic components could be distinguished in several cases using regional geological information. Generally, sequences consist of transgressive and highstand systems tracts only and have flat, abrasion-type lower boundaries. Lowstand deposits are only identified as infill of erosional space, which generally implies marked tectonic uplift. Several eustatic and tectonic events can be correlated with similar events known elsewhere in the North Sea Basin. The time intervals spanned by the different sequences vary considerably, pointing out different control mechanisms.


Author(s):  
K. O. Emery ◽  
David Neev

The Dead Sea occupies a linear down-dropped region between two roughly parallel faults along the central segment of the major northsouth- trending crustal rift that extends about 1,100 km from the Red Sea through the Gulf of Elath to Turkey. This rift or geosuture separates the Arabian crustal sub-plate on the east from the Sinai one on the west. An origin as early as Precambrian is possible (Bender, 1974; Zilberfarb, 1978). Crystalline crust along the north-south trough of the Sinai sub-plate is about 40 km thick in contrast with a thickness of half as much above ridges along both flanks (Ginsburg and Gvirtzman, 1979). Toward the north the ridges appear to converge (Neev, Greenfield, and Hall, 1985). Since the Miocene period the Arabian plate has moved north about 105 km relative to the Sinai plate. This sort of crustal movement along either side of a rift is termed strike-slip faulting. One result of it was the opening of the Red Sea relative to the Gulf of Suez. The Dead Sea graben, a down-dropped block between two roughly parallel faults, occupies the central segment of the long crustal rift. The boundary between these is rather sharp along the east shore of the sea (Frieslander and Ben-Avraham, 1989). Actual post-Miocene movement was along not just a single major fault but was distributed among numerous sub-parallel faults that form a 100-km-wide belt in which movements were transferred from one fault to another (Eyal et al., 1981; Gilat and Honigstein, 1981). Recent movements have occurred along the south segment of the north-south-trending Arava fault south of the Amazyahu transverse fault (Zak and Freund, 1966). These strike-slip movements probably did not continue after Miocene along the main East fault of the Dead Sea, which is the north extension of the Arava wrench fault. In contrast, recent movements have been present along the north-northeast- trending Jordan or Dead Sea fault (Ben-Menahem et al., 1977, fig. 1). The movements extend south from east of Jericho in the north along the base of the west submarine slope of the sea and the elongate salt diapir of Mount Sedom as far as the Amazyahu fault in the south.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 6361-6381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Mallast ◽  
Friedhelm Schwonke ◽  
Richard Gloaguen ◽  
Stefan Geyer ◽  
Martin Sauter ◽  
...  

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