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Holocene Tectonic Deformation Along the Western Margins of the Dead Sea

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Holocene Tectonic Deformation Along the Western Margins of the Dead Sea Tectonophysics, 180 (1990) 123-137 123 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands Holocene tectonic deformation along the western margins of the Dead Sea Michael Gardosh, Ze’ev Reches and Zvi Garfunkel Department of Geology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904 (Israel) (Revised version accepted July 1,1989) ABSTRACT Gardosh, M., Reches, Z. and Garfunkel, Z., 1990. Holocene tectonic deformation along the western margins of the Read Sea. In: R.L. Kovach and Z. Ben-Avraham (Editors), Geologic and Tectonic Processes of the Dead Sea Rift Zone. Tecto~ophys~cs, 180: 123-137. To assess the young tectonic activity along the western margins of the Dead Sea and north of the lake, faults were studied within sediments which are up to 60,000 years old. The western margins of the Dead Sea are dominated by normal, step faults which are exposed up to 2 km east of the morphological escarpment of the basin. The rate of subsidence accommodated by these normal faults is estimated to be about 0.85 mm/y. The distribution of the faults suggests that Holocene fault activity was most intense in the northwestern comer of the Dead Sea. North of the lake, left-lateral slip along the Jordan fault produced both local compression and extension. Small reverse faults and folds exposed along this fault indicate a minimum left-lateral slip rate of 0.7 mm/y. The Dead Sea basin is a pull-apart structure, about 15 km by 80 km in ‘size, located along the The Dead Sea transform separates the Sinai- Dead Sea transform (Fig. 1). Like other pull-aparts Israel subplate, which is a part of the African along the transform, it was formed mainly in plate, from the Arabian plate (Fig. 1) (Freund, post-Miocene times (e.g. Garfunkel, 1981). Our 1965; Garfunkel, 1981). The transform has had a objective here is to resolve some details of the cumulative left-lateral displacement of about 105 Holocene deformation and its rate. For this pur- km since the Miocene. Several pull-apart basins pose we studied in detail the Holocene faulting and push-up swells developed along the trans- along the western margins of the Dead Sea and form. The Dead Sea basin is one of the largest and north of the lake. deepest pull-aparts in this system, being 80 km Young normal faults were traced on aerial pho- long and 5-15 km wide. tographs and sought in the field. The displace- This basin is bounded by two strike-slip faults, ments of Holocene and Late Pliestocene sediments the Jordan and the Arava faults (Garfunkel et al., were measured in exposures along stream banks, 1981) (Fig. 2). The Jordan fault can be traced and detailed topo~ap~c profiles were measured from the west side of the Dead Sea (Neev and across well-preserved fault scarps (Fig. I>. The Hall, 19X), through the Jordan Valley. The Arava strike-slip motion was studied along the main fault can be traced from the west side of the strike-slip fault of the Dead Sea transform, east of northern Gulf of Elat to the east side of the Dead Jericho (Figs. 1 and 2). Sea basin (Fig. 1). In the west and east the Dead ~-1951/~/$03.50 @ 1990 - Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. 124 M. GARDOSH ET AL Fig. 1. Lucation map of the study area. HOLOCENE TECTONISM ON THE DEAD SEA MARGINS 125 TABLE 1 Stratigraphy of post-Pliocene sediments in the Dead Sea basin (after Gardosh (1987a), Zak (1967), Begin et al. (1974), Horowitz (1979), and Zak and Freund (1981) Stratigraphy Age Description Upper Clastic Unit/ Holocene- Lacustrine and fluvial sediments, Fatza’el Mbr. Present 2-15 m thick, widely spread along the Dead Sea basin and southern Jordan Valley Lisan Fm. Late Lacustrine sediments, Pleistocene lo-40 m thick, widely exposed along the Dead Sea basin and Jordan Valley Samra Fm. Middle- Lacustrine and fluvial sediments, Late several tens of meters thick, Pleistocene locally exposed along the Dead Sea basin and southern Jordan Valley Arnora Fm. Early- Lacustrine and fluvial sediments, Middle 0.5-3 km thick, partly Pleistocene exposed near Har Sedom Sedom Fm. Plio- Evaporites of marine origin, 2-4 km Pleistocene thick, partly exposed at Har Sedom Sea basin in bounded by 300-500 m high escarp- (Picard, 1943; Bentor and Vroman, 1960; Neev ments formed by anastomosing steep normal and Emery, 1967) invaded the basin at about faults. 60,000 yrs B.P. Its deposits are the Lisan Forma- The basin is filled with several kilometers of tion. During its highest stand, the lake reached marine and continental sediments deposited since about 200 m above the present Dead Sea level, the Pliocene (Zak, 1967) (Table 1). Since early and it covered most of the marginal faults. The Quaternary times the basin has been influenced by fine intercalated aragonite and clay varves, typical the pluvial and interpluvial climatic cycles of the of the Lisan Formation (Bentor and Vroman, 1960; Quatemary (Picard, 1943; Neev and Emery, 1967; Begin et al., 1974), can therefore be found all Horowitz, 1979). During wet periods, a high along the foot of the western escarpment. Along standing lake filled the basin and extended to the this escarpment, the lacustrine sediments are often marginal escarpments. During drier periods the interlayered with sand, gravel and pebbles brought lake desiccated, and alluvial fans and fluvial sys- by streams that flowed from the west. tems developed into the central part of the basin. About 14,000 years ago Lake Lisan started to The upper Quatemary sediments of the Dead desiccate (Begin et al., 1985). Following its desic- Sea basin display several generations of such lakes. cation, a series of alluvial fans and beach terraces The older lakes, of the “Samra” stage, were in- developed on the older lacustrine sediments at the ferred from the sediments of the Samra Formation foot of the western escarpment. North of the (Picard, 1943; Bentor and Vroman, 1960; Roth, basin, a silty and sandy unit known as the “Upper 1969; Begin et al., 1974; Gardosh, 1987a). The Clastic Unit” (Begin, 1975), or the Fatza’el Mem- lower boundary of this unit is not well defined; ber (Horowitz, 1979) was deposited. thus the Samra stage could include a few lacustrine From almost complete desiccation at the end of cycles that existed in the Middle to Late Pleisto- the Lake Lisan period, the water level rose again cene. during the Holocene to eventually form the pre- The large Lake Lisan of Late Pleistocene age sent-day Dead Sea (Neev and Emery, 1967). M. GARDOSH ET AI Holocene tectonic features 32.‘00’ JORDAN RIVER ~or~ul fudts of the western margin of the Dead Sea basin The western margin of the Dead Sea basin is delineated by a nearly N-S striking belt of normal faults (Figs. 1 and 2) with a cumulative post- Miocene vertical displacement of the order of 3-5 km (Zak, 1967; Neev and Emery, 1967). These faults produced a conspicuous, locally more than 500 m high escarpment built of Cretaceous calcareous rocks. The base of the escarpment is covered by Quaternary sediments of the Samra and Lisan formations and younger Holocene deposits. The subsidence of the basin occurred by slip along the normal faults at the base of the main escarpment, as well as along small branching faults and step faults east of the escarpement (Zak, 1967; Raz, 1983; Mor, 1987) (Fig. 4). In this study, we ex- amined these faults from Nahal Og in the north to Mt. Sedom in the south (Fig. 3). Young faults are recognized either as scarps which displace the surface of Holocene alluvial fans, or as fault planes displacing upper Quar- ternary sediments exposed along stream channels. Evidence for young faulting was found at 26 sites (Fig. 3), which were divided into two groups according to their distance from the main escarp- ment. The first group includes faulted upper Quater- nary sediments at distances of 30 m or less from the foot of the main escarpment; only five cases are included in this group. Sediments which were deposited over the main normal faults were dis- placed along fault planes dipping 70 o -90 O, mostly eastward, with some faults dipping westward. Throws range from 1 to 5 m. The second group includes 21 sites located a few tens of meters to 1.7 km east of the main escarpment (Figs. 3, 4, and 5). Most of them are well-defined isolated faults, while at one site, in Nahal Darga, two wide zones of intensive faulting LEGEND y* CSctive Faults Active * 4. Diapirs - Other Faults Fig. 2. Simplified map of active faults in the Dead Sea basin (after Garfunkel et al., 1981). HOLOCENE TECTONISM ON THE DEAD SEA MARGINS 127 1 appear. These two zones are about 200 m apart, 1.5 km east of the escarpment (Fig. 4~). The western zone is 50 m wide and it contains many tens of faults and listric detachment surfaces. These faults disturb sediments of the base of the Lisan Formation, but they do not disturb the N. KIDRON overlying sediments. The eastern zone is 30 m wide and it contains seven normal faults which offset sediments younger than the Lisan Forma- tion. The age difference between the sediments in these two zones indicates that the eastern zone is at least 50,000 years younger than the western zone. The faults in both zones indicate extension in the ESE-WNW direction. DEAD SEA Fault scarps on alluvial fans in Nahal Kidron Scarp geomeby Fault scarps on surfaces of alluvial fans are the most conspicuous expression of Holocene faulting.
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