The 1170 and 1202 CE Dead Sea Rift earthquakes and long-term magnitude distribution of the Dead Sea Fault Zone

2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Hough ◽  
Ron Avni
Keyword(s):  
Fault Zone ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Magnitude Distribution ◽  
The Dead

Long-term (7 Ma) strain fluctuations within the Dead Sea transform system from high-resolution U-Pb dating of a calcite vein

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Craddock ◽  
Perach Nuriel ◽  
Andrew R.C. Kylander-Clark ◽  
Bradley R. Hacker ◽  
John Luczaj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fault Zone ◽  
Deformation Zone ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Mechanical Twinning ◽  
Fault Activity ◽  
Dead Sea Transform ◽  
Calcite Veins ◽  
The Dead

The onset of the Dead Sea transform has recently been reevaluated by U-Pb age-strain analyses of fault-related calcite taken from several fault strands along its main 500-km-long sector. The results suggest that the relative motion between Africa and Arabia north of the Red Sea was transferred northward to the Dead Sea transform as early as 20 Ma and along a ∼10-km-wide deformation zone that formed the central rift with contemporaneous bounding sinistral motion. The Gishron fault is the western bounding fault with normal and sinistral fault offsets that placed Proterozoic crystalline rocks and a cover of Cambrian sandstones in fault contact with Cretaceous-Eocene carbonates. Fault-related calcite veins are common in the Gishron fault zone, and we report the results of a detailed study of one sample with nine calcite fillings. Low fluid inclusion entrapment temperatures <50 °C, stable isotopes values of −3.3−0‰ (δ13C) and −15 to −13‰ (δ18O), and low rare earth element (REE) concentrations within the nine calcite fault fillings indicate that a local, meteoric fluid fed the Gishron fault zone over ca. 7 Ma at depths of <2 km. Laser ablation U-Pb ages within the thin section range from 20.37 Ma to 12.89 Ma and allow a detailed fault-filling chronology with the oldest calcite filling in the middle, younging outward with shearing between the oldest eight zones, all of which are finally crosscut by a perpendicular (E-W) vein. All nine calcite fillings have unique mechanical twinning strain results (n = 303 grains). Shortening strain magnitudes (−0.28% to −2.8%) and differential stresses (−339 bars to −415 bars) vary across the sample, as do the orientations of the shortening (ε1) and extension (ε3) axes with no evidence of any twinning strain overprint (low negative expected values). Overall, the tectonic compression and shortening is sub-horizontal and sub-parallel to the Gishron fault (∼N-S) and Dead Sea transform plate boundary. Most strikingly, the 7 m.y. period of vein growth correlates exactly with the timing of fault activity as evident within the 10-km-wide deformation zone in this evolving plate boundary (between 20 Ma and 13 Ma).

Changes in the Atmospheric Pressure as an Unfavorable Factor of Work in the Deep Open Pits

2021 ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
O.N. Dragunskiy ◽  
◽  
M. Rivkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Open Pit ◽  
Open Pit Mining ◽  
Sharp Change ◽  
Normative Documents ◽  
Dump Trucks ◽  
The Dead

The need in considering changes (including sharp) of the atmospheric pressure during the operation of deep open pits as one of the unfavorable factors is substantiated. It is believed that the atmospheric pressure in a particular region varies slightly-within 30–40 mm Hg per year. But at the present time, when only in Russia there are five open pits with a depth of 500 m and more, it is impossible to ignore changes in the atmospheric pressure in relation to workers moving, for example, by motor transport, from the surface to the bottom of the open pit and back. In this case, it can change by 50 or more mm Hg in half an hour. To solve the related problems, it is required to find out how atmospheric pressure affects the blood pressure of the open pit workers. The experience of the Dead Sea Clinic located in Israel at the Dead Sea at a depth of more than 400 m below the sea level is taken as a basis. Long-term measurements of the blood pressure in patients of the clinic revealed a tendency to decrease it by an average of 10–20 mm Hg. To prevent the adverse effect of a sharp change in the atmospheric pressure on people working in deep open pits, it is required to provide for appropriate measures of a different nature: technological (provide for changes in the characteristics of the open pit roads to ensure smoother descents and ascents of the dump trucks); technical (use of the conveyor and combined transport); organizational (including changes in the work and rest regimes of the working employees); regulatory (amendments to the relevant safety rules and other normative documents). To apply the results obtained in the open pit mining, it is necessary to conduct appropriate research in the operating deep open pits.

Did the Red Sea – Mediterranean connection over the Dead Sea Fault Zone end in the Late Pliocene?

2016 ◽  
Vol 401 ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Engin Meriç ◽  
Ertuğ Öner ◽  
Niyazi Avşar ◽  
Atike Nazik ◽  
Hakan Güneyli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fault Zone ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
The Dead

Long-term prediction of the water level and salinity in the Dead Sea

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (14) ◽  
pp. 2819-2831 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. N. Asmar ◽  
Peter Ergenzinger
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Term Prediction ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Long Term Prediction

Stable isotopes of a subfossil Tamarix tree from the Dead Sea region, Israel, and their implications for the Intermediate Bronze Age environmental crisis

2009 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Frumkin
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Nitrogen Isotopes ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Salt Diapir ◽  
Isotopic Enrichment ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
The Dead

AbstractTrees growing on the Mt. Sedom salt diapir, at the southern Dead Sea shore, were swept by runoff into salt caves and subsequently deposited therein, sheltered from surface weathering. A subfossil Tamarix tree trunk, found in a remote section of Sedom Cave is radiocarbon dated to between ∼ 2265 and 1930 BCE. It was sampled in 109 points across the tree rings for carbon and nitrogen isotopes. The Sedom Tamarix demonstrates a few hundred years of 13C and 15N isotopic enrichment, culminating in extremely high δ13C and δ15N values. Calibration using modern Tamarix stable isotopes in various climatic settings in Israel shows direct relationship between isotopic enrichment and climate deterioration, particularly rainfall decrease. The subfossil Tamarix probably reflects an environmental crisis during the Intermediate Bronze Age, which subsequently killed the tree ∼ 1930 BCE. This period coincides with the largest historic fall of the Dead Sea level, as well as the demise of the large regional urban center of the 3rd millennium BCE. The environmental crisis may thus explain the archaeological evidence of a shift from urban to pastoral culture during the Intermediate Bronze Age. This was apparently the most severe long-term historical drought that affected the region in the mid-late Holocene.

scholarly journals Observations of positive sea surface temperature trends in the steadily shrinking Dead Sea

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 3007-3018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Kishcha ◽  
Rachel T. Pinker ◽  
Isaac Gertman ◽  
Boris Starobinets ◽  
Pinhas Alpert
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Feedback Loop ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Positive Feedback Loop ◽  
Temperature Trends ◽  
The Dead

Abstract. Increasing warming of steadily shrinking Dead Sea surface water compensates for surface water cooling (due to increasing evaporation) and even causes observed positive Dead Sea sea surface temperature trends. This warming is caused by two factors: increasing daytime heat flow from land to sea (as a result of the steady shrinking) and regional atmospheric warming. Using observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), positive trends were detected in both daytime and nighttime Dead Sea sea surface temperature (SST) over the period of 2000–2016. These positive SST trends were observed in the absence of positive trends in surface solar radiation, measured by the Dead Sea buoy pyranometer. We also show that long-term changes in water mixing in the uppermost layer of the Dead Sea under strong winds could not explain the observed SST trends. There is a positive feedback loop between the positive SST trends and the steady shrinking of the Dead Sea, which contributes to the accelerating decrease in Dead Sea water levels during the period under study. Satellite-based SST measurements showed that maximal SST trends of over 0.8 ∘C decade−1 were observed over the northwestern and southern sides of the Dead Sea, where shrinking of the Dead Sea water area was pronounced. No noticeable SST trends were observed over the eastern side of the lake, where shrinking of the Dead Sea water area was insignificant. This finding demonstrates correspondence between the positive SST trends and the shrinking of the Dead Sea indicating a causal link between them. There are two opposite processes taking place in the Dead Sea: sea surface warming and cooling. On the one hand, the positive feedback loop leading to sea surface warming every year accompanied by long-term increase in SST; on the other hand, the measured acceleration of the Dead Sea water-level drop suggests a long-term increase in Dead Sea evaporation accompanied by a long-term decrease in SST. During the period under investigation, the total result of these two opposite processes is the statistically significant positive sea surface temperature trends in both daytime (0.6 ∘C decade−1) and nighttime (0.4 ∘C decade−1), observed by the MODIS instrument. Our findings of the existence of a positive feedback loop between the positive SST trends and the shrinking of the Dead Sea imply the following significant point: any meteorological, hydrological or geophysical process causing the steady shrinking of the Dead Sea will contribute to positive trends in SST. Our results shed light on continuing hazards to the Dead Sea.

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