A 220,000-year-long continuous large earthquake record from the central Dead Sea Fault

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Lu ◽  
Nadav Wetzler ◽  
Nicolas Waldmann ◽  
Amotz Agnon ◽  
Glenn Biasi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Earthquake ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Recurrence Time ◽  
Plate Boundaries ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Ground Acceleration ◽  
Clustering Model ◽  
Earthquake Record ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Large Earthquakes

<p>Large earthquakes (magnitude ≥ 7.0) are rare, especially along slow-slipping plate boundaries. Lack of large earthquakes in the instrumental record enlarges uncertainty of the recurrence time; the recurrence of large earthquakes is generally determined by extrapolation according to a magnitude-frequency relation. We enhance the seismological catalog of the Dead Sea Fault Zone by including a 220,000-year-long continuous large earthquake record based on seismites from the Dead Sea center (ICDP Core 5017-1). We constrain seismic shaking intensities via computational fluid dynamics modeling and invert them for earthquake magnitude. Our analysis shows that the recurrence time of large earthquakes follows a power-law distribution, with a mean of ≤ 1400±160 years. This mean recurrence is significantly shorter than the previous estimate of 11,000 years for the past 40,000 years. Our unique record confirms a clustered earthquake recurrence pattern and a group-fault temporal clustering model, and reveals an unexpectedly high seismicity rate on a slow-slipping plate boundary.</p><p>Our results suggest that researchers may underestimate the seismic hazard potential of similar slow-slipping faults with irregular rupture. Our study highlights the potential of <em>in situ</em> deformed sediment layers in a subaqueous environment as a strong-motion paleo-seismometer to record long seismic sequences covering multiple recurrence intervals of large earthquakes. Long records are vital for accurate hazard assessment. Our quantitative method of seismic record reconstruction, with paleo-earthquake intensity (ground acceleration) and magnitude estimation, may also prove suitable for similar subaqueous environments along other faults.</p>

scholarly journals A 220,000-year-long continuous large earthquake record on a slow-slipping plate boundary

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (48) ◽  
pp. eaba4170
Author(s):  
Yin Lu ◽  
Nadav Wetzler ◽  
Nicolas Waldmann ◽  
Amotz Agnon ◽  
Glenn P. Biasi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Large Earthquake ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Recurrence Time ◽  
Plate Boundaries ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Clustering Model ◽  
Earthquake Record ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Large Earthquakes

Large earthquakes (magnitude ≥ 7.0) are rare, especially along slow-slipping plate boundaries. Lack of large earthquakes in the instrumental record enlarges uncertainty of the recurrence time; the recurrence of large earthquakes is generally determined by extrapolation according to a magnitude-frequency relation. We enhance the seismological catalog of the Dead Sea Fault Zone by including a 220,000-year-long continuous large earthquake record based on seismites from the Dead Sea center. We constrain seismic shaking intensities via computational fluid dynamics modeling and invert them for earthquake magnitude. Our analysis shows that the recurrence time of large earthquakes follows a power-law distribution, with a mean of 1400 ± 160 years. This mean recurrence is notable shorter than the previous estimate of 11,000 years for the past 40,000 years. Our unique record confirms a clustered earthquake recurrence pattern and a group-fault temporal clustering model, and reveals an unexpectedly high seismicity rate on a slow-slipping plate boundary.

scholarly journals Tectonic and Geologic Evolution of Syria

GeoArabia ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Brew ◽  
Muawia Barazangi ◽  
Ahmad Khaled Al-Maleh ◽  
Tarif Sawaf
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Fault System ◽  
Tectonic Deformation ◽  
Plate Boundaries ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

ABSTRACT Using extensive surface and subsurface data, we have synthesized the Phanerozoic tectonic and geologic evolution of Syria that has important implications for eastern Mediterranean tectonic studies and the strategies for hydrocarbon exploration. Syrian tectonic deformation is focused in four major zones that have been repeatedly reactivated throughout the Phanerozoic in response to movement on nearby plate boundaries. They are the Palmyride Mountains, the Euphrates Fault System, the Abd el Aziz-Sinjar uplifts, and the Dead Sea Fault System. The Palmyrides include the SW Palmyride fold and thrust belt and two inverted sub-basins that are now the Bilas and Bishri blocks. The Euphrates Fault System and Abd el Aziz-Sinjar grabens in eastern Syria are large extensional features with a more recent history of Neogene compression and partial inversion. The Dead Sea transform plate boundary cuts through western Syria and has associated pull-apart basins. The geological history of Syria has been reconstructed by combining the interpreted geologic history of these zones with tectonic and lithostratigraphic analyses from the remainder of the country. Specific deformation episodes were penecontemporaneous with regional-scale plate-tectonic events. Following a relatively quiescent early Paleozoic shelf environment, the NE-trending Palmyride/Sinjar Trough formed across central Syria in response to regional compression followed by Permian-Triassic opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean and the eastern Mediterranean. This continued with carbonate deposition in the Mesozoic. Late Cretaceous tectonism was dominated by extension in the Euphrates Fault System and Abd el Aziz-Sinjar Graben in eastern Syria associated with the closing of the Neo-Tethys. Repeated collisions along the northern Arabian margin from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Miocene caused platform-wide compression. This led to the structural inversion and horizontal shortening of the Palmyride Trough and Abd el Aziz-Sinjar Graben.

scholarly journals Unraveling rift margin evolution and escarpment development ages along the Dead Sea fault using cosmogenic burial ages

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Matmon ◽  
D. Fink ◽  
M. Davis ◽  
S. Niedermann ◽  
D. Rood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Plate Boundaries ◽  
Fluvial Sediments ◽  
Drainage Pattern ◽  
African Plate ◽  
Significant Extension ◽  
Quaternary History ◽  
The Dead

AbstractThe Dead Sea fault (DSF) is one of the most active plate boundaries in the world. Understanding the Quaternary history and sediments of the DSF requires investigation into the Neogene development of this plate boundary. DSF lateral motion preceded significant extension and rift morphology by ~10 Ma. Sediments of the Sedom Formation, dated here between 5.0 ± 0.5 Ma and 6.2−2.1+inf Ma, yielded extremely low 10Be concentrations and 26Al is absent. These reflect the antiquity of the sediments, deposited in the Sedom Lagoon, which evolved in a subdued landscape and was connected to the Mediterranean Sea. The base of the overlying Amora Formation, deposited in the terminal Amora Lake which developed under increasing relief that promoted escarpment incision, was dated at 3.3−0.8+0.9 Ma. Burial ages of fluvial sediments within caves (3.4 ± 0.2 Ma and 3.6 ± 0.4 Ma) represent the timing of initial incision. Initial DSF topography coincides with the earliest Red Sea MORB's and the East Anatolian fault initiation. These suggest a change in the relative Arabian–African plate motion. This change introduced the rifting component to the DSF followed by a significant subsidence, margin uplift, and a reorganization of relief and drainage pattern in the region resulting in the topographic framework observed today.

Holocene Earthquakes Inferred from a Fan-Delta Sequence in the Dead Sea Graben

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yehouda Enzel ◽  
Galit Kadan ◽  
Yehuda Eyal
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea ◽  
Silty Sand ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Dead Sea Transform ◽  
Fan Delta ◽  
Earthquake Record ◽  
Delta Sequence ◽  
Deformed Layer ◽  
Sediment Deformation ◽  
The Dead

AbstractThe Holocene sequence of the fan-delta of Nahal Darga, in Israel, records deformation associated with earthquakes related to the Dead Sea Transform in general and to the Jericho Fault in particular. The fan-delta sequence is well exposed, and 20 radiocarbon ages help to date the earthquakes that are inferred from (a) displacement along faults, (b) liquefaction features associated with 11 separate sandy and silty layers, and (c) slumped allocthonous bodies of sediments located directly above one of the main splays of the Jericho Fault. On average, an earthquake larger than M 5.5 has occurred approximately every 600 years. This estimate is based on the earthquake record of the complete stratigraphic sequence, with erosional hiatuses omitted from the calculations. The most recently deformed layer is related to the 1927 Jericho (ML 6.2) earthquake. This layer provides a modern analog for the style of soft-sediment deformation associated with earthquakes in the late Pleistocene and Holocene silty sand beds of the fan-delta complexes of the Dead Sea and its predecessor, Lake Lisan.

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