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Strike-Slip Fault Morphology and Reconstruction of Offsets Along the Qana'im Fault Zone, Judean Desert

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Strike-Slip Fault Morphology and Reconstruction of Offsets Along the Qana'im Fault Zone, Judean Desert as! Current Research. vol. II 33 STRIKE-SLIP FAULT MORPHOLOGY AND RECONSTRUCTION OF OFFSETS ALONG THE QANA'IM FAULT ZONE, JUDEAN DESERT. Arie Gilat STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK The main Qana'im Fault runs parallel to the major western Dead Sea fault from the area of Hamakhtesh This paper delineates structural and morphological Haqatan in the south to Biq' at Hureqanya and farther to features and the history of movements along the Qana' im the north, where it sinistrally displaces and is dextrally fault zone, one of the largest (> 100 Ian) fault zones of the displaced by the dextral Samia fault (Begin, 1973). Dead Sea transform system. Its main N-S trending fault Farther north it passes along the Auja monocline (Blake, transects the prevailingly NE Syrian Arc (Krenkel, 1924) 1928); its NNW trending branches are 3-15 (or more) thrust-folded mesostructures 8 to 10 Ian west of the Dead km long, crossing the entire Judean Desert and parts of Sea cliffs (Fig. 1). The poly-stage movement along the the horst-anticlines of the Judean and Shomeron transform, which is a dominant wrench fault with left Mountains. (Fig. 1). The faults show alternating sides of lateral displacement of about 100 km (Quennell, 1959, both normal and thrust throws. They also form flexures, Freund, 1965), accomodating the Red Sea spreading and V-shaped synclines and shear zones with horizontal the northward movement of the Arabian Plate relative to slickensides. Vertical displacements of up to 0.3 km and the African, produced a system of rift-type depressions sinistral offsets of 0.1-1.3 km were observed. (grabens) in the Levant, including the Gulf of Elat and Many fault segments are superposed on pre-existing the Dead Sea graben. These develop inside the generally structures: in the Adasha Valley the younger (Plio­ north-south oriented shear-zone of the transform (-30 to Pleistocene) fault is about 100 m west and is parallel to -90 km wide). Contrary to most parts of this zone, the the Pre-Santonian fault; near Mt. Holed it passes southern part is not camouflaged by Phanerozoic through a long and narrow graben, above which the sediments, and is clearly visible on satellite images and Senonian sequence is much thinner, suggesting a horst on the geological map (Bartov, 1990). Sinistral faults development during that period (Gil at and Honigstein, belonging to this zone have been studied west of the 1981). Gulf of Aqaba, with the general conclusion that the The western region of the Judean Desert is a large movements took place during the last 20 m.y. (Bartov et structural terrace forming since the earliest Santonian aI., 1980). Further north and west of the Dead Sea, in the (Flexer et aI., 1989), comprised of different N-S and J udean Desert, the total thickness of Phanerozoic NE-SW trending anticlinal flexures, deformed by a sedimentary cover reaches 3-4 km, and the reflection of well-developed and still active system of faults related strike-slip movements on the surface is inferior to that in to the Dead Sea transform. In conjunction with activated the eastern Sinai. faults of the northeastern trend, these faults form the The pre-Santonian main Proto-Qana'im fault sub­ structural frame (Fig. 1), which reflects the northward divides the southern part of the desert into two different movements of the blocks. geological regions, which have a different Late Between the main fault of the Qana'im zone and the Cretaceous - Neogene geological history; these are main Dead Sea cliff there are at least three more N-S reflected by the Late Santonian-Early Campanian trending sinistral strike-slip faults of more than 20 km "Double-Chert" and the development of numerous length and a system of E-W trending dextral strike-slip circular dolomite bodies during the Miocene - Pliocene, shear zones up to 1 km wide, solely responsible for the both phenomena occurring only in the eastern region development of oversized U-shaped box canyons in the (Qana'im Valley fault, Gilat and Honigstein, 1981; easternmost Judean Desert area. Present-day structures Gilat et aI., 1978). In some of the fault segments, which in the area illustrate the idealized scheme of sinistral comprise a main fault and its branches, the limestone faults causing counterclockwise rotation of domains and even the chalky rock sequence have been massively nested between sub-perpendicular dextral faults; even dolomitized in the faults' vicinity by hydrothermal - the triangular gaps (crumbled sections, Gilat, 1992a, fig. metasomatic processes, probably in the Pliocene (Gilat, 2) along domain boundaries are well preserved, and arc­ I 992a). systems of tensional fractures, separating southeastern 34 GSI Current Research. vo l. I I 150 140 130 120 110 100 090 080 070 060 050 040 030 Figure I . Loc ati on map of th e Qan a' illl wrench fau lt shown on th e digi La I shad ed- reli ef map of Israel and environs (Hall. 1997). I. strike-sli p fauli ; 2. strike-slip fau lt. locality in ferred: 3. fl exure. arrows show downdi p: 4. V-syncline; 5. V-sy nc li ne vertically displaced. umbers on th e map show the localiti es of Il exures: I - Makhtesh Hazeru: 2 - Dimona-Zohar: 3 - N. Rahaf: ~ - Bic(at Qana' im : 5 - . Ze'el im: 6 - eastern nex ure of the ludean Mts.: 7 - western newre of the ludean Mts.: 8 - Biq'at Hureqanya; 9 - Auja: 10 - Samia htu li strip: Addi ti onal localiti es: I I - Mt. Holed; 12 - N. Adasha; 13 - Hatrurim basin ; 14 - I-I"r-Menahem: 15 - I-Iar­ Na mer; 16 - N. Darga. GSI Current Research, vol. 11 35 block-edges, protruding (as a result of rotation) into the (Fig. 3), can be defined as an "up-thrusted flexure - few kilometers deep Dead Sea graben, are clearly opposite flexure". The fault inferred beneath the alluvial visible even on aerial photographs (Gilat, 1992a, fig. 4). cover is indicated by the Har-Menahem anticlinal The study area is composed of Cenomanian to structure steeply dipping to the west and east. Recent sedimentary rock (Fig. 2). Block-rotation and Some 2 kIn north of section I (coord. 1763/0822, II, development of huge canyons (a result of intensive Fig. 3), there is no vertical displacement on the Qana'im shearing caused by repeated reversals in the sense of Fault but a "narrow syncline" (V-syncline), formed by rotation of adjacent domains, which dramatically the simple western flexure of Har-Namer from the east increased sheet-erosion and mass-wasting of valley juxtaposed against the complex western flexure of the slopes, multiplying valley bed-load), occurred in the Qana'im Valley. Further north, the western flexure Late Pliocene-early Late Pleistocene following massive steeply dips northward toward the Ze'elim Valley (from dolomitization (Gilat, 1992b), and preceded the Lisan coord. 1760/0822 to coord. 1760/0829), from a structural Lake sedimentation (about 100,000 BP). height of 340 m to 220 m, and even lower. On the uplifted block to the east of the main fault, 2-3 fault planes z developed parallel to the main fault, and the thickness of o !L. the overlying Senonian section is some 30% less than ~ ::I a: oa: that in the down-faulted block. One of these faults crosses ~ c:J the Ze' elim canyon escarpment, and has the appearance it a 0-15 v v v v v ~ ~a: NEOGENE- v v v of a reverse fault. < -RECENT .00· 00 0 !; _w Nc 0-20 ~i~~:oo.~]1 ~~~------~----~--~~~~~~----~~ Further north an additional lowering of the base of ~ 0 PALEOCENE Tit 10-27 - -F-- F TAQIYE C/) the east-dipping flexure west of the main fault took ~-r'-------+----r----+-~~F~-=4----~ ::I C/) MAASTRC "'50 F...L.....L.....L..B G & place. On this segment the main fault plane dips 100° and 5 ~ I HT. Kug or ...L.....L.. ~ F B -L HAREB g the vertical displacement is -100 m, and horizontal 9 ~ CAMPANIAN Kumi 3-20 '#!t-.!~ MISHASH ~ ~ z -p --- ::I slickensides are found on the fault plane. The beds of the a: ~ SANTONIAN 0-80'" .... ~ ~ (.) Kum ~ ~ MENUHA uplifted eastern block dip westward (Fig. 3, section IV). ~ ~~TU~R=O~NI~AN~~-Ku-b-r-~-,-,~~~~~~F72j1/-B-I'-NA--t-~ On the exposed main fault large (up to 10 m long), open !L. ~ :> ~~~5~NIAN Kuw 5·50 WERADIM ~ concave fractures trending parallel to it and slickolites (coord. 1763/0837) are visible. The dominant structure 1v v v 1 Alluvium I...L..-L ...L..I Chalk ~ Dolomite ~ Umestone along the main fault is a "westward dipping uplifted eastern flexure - opposite a down faulted western flexure 0 ~ Chert l~ 0 Congo Clay c:::::J Sand o. 1 1---1__ ~ dipping eastward, both flexures separated by the strike­ slip fault". 1:- J Marl F Ferruginous B Bituminous p Phosphatic The eastern block of the Qana'im Fault dips to the Figure 2. Generalized stratigraphic section of the J udean north (1763/0845). On the fault segment situated between Mountains - Judean Desert region. coords. 1763/0844 and 1763/0856 (Fig. 3, section V, center) its graben-like structure can be defined as a ramp­ structure (produced by thrust-fault), only 50 m wide, GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE MAIN infilled by shale and clay of the Taqiye Formation. This QANA'IM FAULT ramp separates the western flexure from the uplifted Fault morphology is shown in Figure 3. Near the Arad - eastern block. Mezada road crossing Biq'at Qana'im, an intricate Along its farther northern segment, up to coord. structure of an ell echelon system of branch-faults, 5-15 1764/0885, the main fault subdivides into at least five km long, cuts the western flexure of the Qana'im Fault.
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