Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T11:15:18.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yehouda Enzel ,
Galit Kadan  and
Yehuda Eyal
Yehouda Enzel*
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences and Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel
Galit Kadan
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel
Yehuda Eyal
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The 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 (M L 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.

Keywords

Dead SeaIsraelfan deltaHoloceneneotectonicsearthquakes
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 34 - 48
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, J.R.L., (1984). Sedimentary structures, their character and physical basis. Developments in Sedimentology 30, Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Allen, J.R.L., (1986). Earthquake magnitude-frequency, epicentral distance, and soft-sediments deformation in sedimentary basins. Sedimentary Geology 46, 67–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arieh, A., (1967). Seismicity of Israel and adjacent areas. Geology Survey of Israel Bulletin 43, 1–14.Google Scholar
Begin, Z.B., Ehrlich, A., Nathan, Y., (1974). Lake Lisan—The Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin 63, .Google Scholar
Begin, B. Z, Brocker, W, Buchbinder, B, Druckman, Y, Kaufman, A, Magaritz, M, Neev, D., (1985). Dead Sea and Lake Lisan levels in the last 30,000 years.. Geological Survey of Israel Report GSI/29/85. .Google Scholar
Ben-Avraham, Z., Niemi, T.N., Neev, D., Hall, J.K., Levy, Y., (1993). Distribution of Holocene sediments and neotectonics in the deep north basin of the Dead Sea. Marine Geology 113, 219–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Menahem, A., (1991). Four thousand years of seismicity along the Dead Sea Rift. Journal of Geophysical Research 96, 20,195–20,216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Menahem, A., Nur, A., Vered, M., (1976). Tectonics, seismicity and structure of the Afro-Eurasian junction—The breaking of an incoherent plate. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 12, 1–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Menahem, A., Aboodi, E., (1981). Micro- and macro-seismicity of the Dead Sea rift and off-coast eastern Mediterranean. Tectonophysics 80, 199–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, D., (1974). River Terraces in the Dead Sea Area—Morphological Aspects. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, .Google Scholar
Bowman, D., (1995). Active surface ruptures on the northern Arava fault, the Dead Sea rift. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 51–60.Google Scholar
Cojan, I., Thirty, M., (1992). Seismically induced deformation structures in Oligocene shallow-marine aeolian coastal sands (Paris Basin). Tectonophysics 206, 79–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunne, L.E., Hempton, M.R., (1984). Deltaic sedimentation in the Lake Hazar pull-apart basin, sout-eastern Turkey. Sedimentology 31, 401–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyal, Y., Reches, Z., (1983). Tectonic analysis of the Dead Sea rift region since the late-Cretaceous based on mesostructures. Tectonics 2, 167–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyal, Y, Bruner, I, Kadan, G, Enzel, Y, Landa, E., (1997). Association of Surface and Subsurface Tectonic Structures at the Holocene Fan-Delta of Nahal Darga, Dead Sea Israel. Holon, Israel.. The Geophysical Institute of Israel Report No. 704/150/96. .Google Scholar
Freund, R., (1965). A model for the development of Israel and adjacent areas since the Upper Cretaceous times. Geological Magazine 102, 189–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A., Magaritz, M., Carmi, I., Zak, I., (1991). The Holocene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. The Holocene 1, 191–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardosh, M., Reches, Z., Garfunkel, Z., (1990). Holocene tectonic deformation along the western margins of the Dead Sea. Tectonophysics 180, 123–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfunkel, Z., (1978). The Negev: Regional Synthesis of Sedimentary Basins.. 10th International Congress of Sedimentology, part 1, Precongress Field Trips in Israel, pp. 35–110.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z., Ben-Avraham, Z., (1996). The structure of the Dead Sea basin. Tectonophysics 266, 155–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfunkel, Z., Zak, I., Freund, R., (1981). Active faulting in the Dead Sea rift. Tectonophysics 80, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hempton, M.R., Dewey, J.F., (1983). Earthquake-induced deformational structures in young lacustrine sediments, East Anatolian Fault, southeast Turkey. Tectonophysics 98, T7–T14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IRPG (Institute for Petroleum Research and Geophysics),(1994). Seismicity of Israel and Adjacent Areas (map). Scale 1:750,000..Google Scholar
Kadan, G., (1997). Evidence for Dead Sea Lake-Level Fluctuations and Recent Tectonism from the Holocene Fan-Delta of Nahal Darga, Israel. Ben Gurion University of the Negev, .Google Scholar
Karcz, I., Kafri, U., Meshel, Z., (1977). Archeological evidence for subrecent seismic activity along the Dead Sea–Jordan rift. Nature 269, 234–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, C., (1982). Morphological evidence of Lake Level changes, western shore of the Dead Sea. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 67–94.Google Scholar
Klein, C., (1990). Level variations of the Dead Sea. Naor, M., The Dead Sea and The Judean Desert 1960–1900 Yad Ben-Zvi Publishing, Jerusalem.29–45.Google Scholar
Maltman, A., (1994). The Geological Deformation of Sediments. Chapman & Hall, London, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manspeizer, W., (1985). The Dead Sea Rift: Impact of climate and tectonism on Pleistocene and Holocene sediments. Biddle, K.T., Christie-Black, N., Strike-Slip Deformation, Basin Formation and Sedimentation 143–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marco, S., Agnon, A., (1995). Prehistoric earthquake deformation near Masada, Dead Sea Graben. Geology 23, 695–698.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marco, S., Stein, M., Agnon, A., Ron, H., (1996). Long-term earthquake clustering: A 50,000-year paleoseismic record in the Dead Sea graben. Journal of Geophysical Research 101(B3), 6179–6191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mor, U., (1987). The Geology of The Judean Desert in the Vicinity of Nahal Darga, Israel. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, .Google Scholar
Neev, D., Emery, K.O., (1967). The Dead Sea, depositional processes and environments of evaporites. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin 41, .Google Scholar
Neev, D., Hall, J.K., (1979). Geophysical investigations in the Dead Sea. Sedimentary Geology 23, 209–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, T.M., Ben-Avraham, Z., (1994). Evidence for Jericho earthquakes from slumped sediments of the Jordan River delta in the Dead Sea. Geology 22, 395–398.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, T.M., Ben-Avraham, Z., (1997). Active tectonics in the Dead Sea basin. Niemi, T.M., Ben-Avraham, Z., Gat, J.R., The Dead Sea—The Lake and Its Setting 73–81.Google Scholar
Obermeier, S.F., Gohn, G.S., Weems, R.E., Gelinas, R.L., Robin, M., (1985). Geologic evidence for recurrent moderate to large earthquakes near Charlston, South Carolina. Science 227, 408–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rajendran, C.T., Talwani, P., (1993). Paleoseismic indicators near Bluffton, south Carolina: An appraisal of their tectonic implications. Geology 21, 987–990.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reches, Z., Hoexeter, D.F., (1981). Holocene seismic and tectonic activity in the Dead Sea area. Tectonophysics 80, 235–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salamon, A., Hofstetter, A., Garfunkel, Z., Ron, H., (1996). Seismicity of the eastern Mediterranean region: Perspective from the Sinai subplate. Tectonophysics 263, 293–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapira, A., Avni, R., Nur, A., (1993). A new estimate for the epicenter of the Jericho earthquake of 11 July 1927. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 42, 93–96.Google Scholar
Sims, J.D., (1973). Earthquake-induced structures in sediments of the Van-Norman Lake, San Fernando, California. Science 182, 161–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, J.D., (1975). Determining earthquake recurrence intervals from deformational structures in young lacustrine sediments. Tectonophysics 29, 141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sneh, A., (1979). Late Pleistocene fan deltas along the Dead Sea rift. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 49, 541–552.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., (1993). Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ten Brink, U.S., Ben-Avraham, Z., (1989). The anatomy of pull-apart basin: Reflection observations of the Dead Sea basin. Tectonics 8, 333–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Eck, T., Hofstetter, A., (1989). Microearthquakes activity in the Dead Sea region. Geophysical Journal International 99, 605–620.Google Scholar
Van Eck, T., Hofstetter, A., (1990). Fault geometry and spatial clustering of microearthquakes along the Dead Sea–Jordan rift zone. Tectonophysics 180, 15–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vered, M, Striem, H. L., (1977). A Macroseismic Study of the July 11, 1927 Earthquake.. Israel Atomic Energy Commission Licensing Division Report, IA-LD-1-107. .Google Scholar
Wells, D.L., Coppersmith, K.J., (1994). New empirical relationships among magnitudes, rupture length, rupture width, rupture area, and surface displacement. Seismological Society of America Bulletin 84, 974–1002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, F.T., Karcz, I., Arieh, E., Kafri, U., Peled, U., (1973). Microearthquakes along the Dead Sea rift. Geology 1, 159–161.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yechieli, Y., Magaritz, M., Levy, Y., Weber, U., Kafri, U., Woelfli, W., Bonani, G., (1993). Late Quaternary geological history of the Dead Sea Area, Israel. Quaternary Research 39, 59–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar