[1] The Dead Sea (DS) pull-apart basin is one of the more seismically active segments of the DS Transform plate boundary. In the last decade, hundreds of collapse-sinkholes have been formed along the DS coastlines in Israel and Jordan, causing severe damage to the regional infrastructure. The formation of these sinkholes is attributed to the dissolution of a buried salt layer by fresh groundwater due to the drop of the DS and the associated groundwater levels. Here we show that the sinkhole distribution, combined with gradual land subsidence measured by radar interferometry (InSAR) track young fault systems suspected as active, concealed within the fill of the DS rift. This notion is supported by (1) sinkholes clustering along discrete lineaments with a striking trend similarity to that of the exposed rift-margin faults; (2) prominent discontinuities in seismic reflection profiles offsetting young sediments (several kyrs old) below sinkhole lines, and (3) straight boundaries of gradual subsidence features that coincide with or parallel sinkhole lines. Combined, the sinkhole lineaments and the InSAR measurements reveal a zigzag pattern of buried faults within the DS rift fill.

We present tomographic images of crustal velocity structures in the complex Hot Springs and Trifurcation areas of the San Jacinto Fault Zone (SJFZ) based on double-difference inversions of earthquake arrival times. We invert for V P , V S and hypocentre location within 50 × 50 × 20 km 3 volumes, using 266 969 P and 148 249 S arrival times. We obtain high-fidelity images of seismic velocities with resolution on the order of a few kilometres from 2 to 12 km depth and validate the results using checkerboard tests. Due to the relatively large proportion of S-wave arrival times, we also obtain stable maps of V P /V S ratios in both regions. The velocity of the Trifurcation Area as a whole is lower than adjacent unfaulted material. We interpret a 4-kmwide low velocity zone with high V P /V S ratio in the trifurcation itself as related to fault zone damage. We also observe clear velocity contrasts across the Buck Ridge, Clark and Coyote Creek segments of the SJFZ. The Anza segment of the SJFZ, to the NW of the trifurcation area, displays a strong (up to 27 per cent) contrast of V S from 2 to 9 km depth. In the Hot Springs area, a low velocity zone between the Claremont and Casa Loma Strands narrows with depth, with clear velocity contrasts observed across both segments. A roughly 10-km-wide zone of low velocity and low V P /V S ratio at the NW tip of the Hot Springs fault is indicative of either unconsolidated sediments associated with the San Jacinto basin, or fluid-filled cracks within a broad deformation zone. High V P /V S ratios along the Anza segment could indicate a preferred nucleation location for future large earthquakes, while the across-fault velocity contrast suggests a preferred northwest rupture propagation direction for such events.

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