When did the Dead Sea fault become a transform?

Abstract

This study re-evaluates the ∼20 Myr development of the Dead Sea Fault System (DSFS) and its tectonic definition as a transform plate boundary. The DSFS conveys sinistral displacement between the Arabian-Sinai plates: ∼105 km along its ∼400 km-long southern segment (Gulf of Aqaba-Eilat to the Hula basin); ∼90 km and 4–16 km along the central and northern segments (∼190 km long each, across Lebanon, western Syria, and southern Turkey). A review of previous studies, combined with new seismological data analysis, associates the northward displacement decline with obstacles along the DSFS propagation path. During the Miocene, DSFS propagated up to the NW-trending Irbid rift (1st obstacle) and splayed NW towards the Mediterranean and NE along the Late Cretaceous Palmyra fold-thrust belt (2nd obstacle). Its reactivation uplifted the Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges. Northward DSFS propagation into the cold and rigid Aleppo plateau lithosphere (3rd obstacle) was stalled until the early Pliocene (∼5 Ma), when volcanism and ongoing regional tectonic forcing enabled the DSFS to shift to the Yammouneh fault and rupture through the Missyaf-Ghab branch farther north (central and northern segments, respectively). During the Pleistocene-recent, connection of the DSFS with the ophiolite belt and East Anatolian Fault System (EAFS) along the Bitlis suture zone (4th obstacle) has not yet been established. Seismological data show a clear separation between the EAFS and the DSFS, while seismicity is scattered across the Aleppo plateau and the central and northern DSFS segments. In contrast, seismicity is localized along the southern DSFS segment. Our findings suggest that, at present, the DSFS has still not made a structural, seismologic, and tectonic connection with the EAFS. Hence, we redefine the DSFS as a pre-transform and suggest its interaction with the EAFS is a world-class example of a fault-fault-fault triple junction in the making.