The temporal distribution of earthquakes in the Dead Sea Graben is studied through a 50,000‐year paleoseismic record recovered in laminated sediments of the Late Pleistocene Lake Lisan (paleo‐Dead Sea). The Lisan represents more than 10 times the 4000 years of historical earthquake records. It is the longest and most complete paleoseismic record along the Dead Sea Transform and possibly the longest continuous record on Earth. It includes unique exposures of seismite beds (earthquake‐induced structures) associated with slip events on syndepositional faults. The seismites are layers consisting of mixtures of fragmented and pulverized laminae. The places where the seismites abut syndepositional faults are interpreted as evidence for their formation at the sediment‐water interface during slip events on these faults. Thicker sediment accumulation above the seismites in the downthrown blocks indicates that a seismite formed at the water‐sediment interface on both sides of the fault scarps. Modern analogs and the association with surface ruptures suggest that each seismite formed during an ML ≥ 5.5 earthquake. The 230Th‐234U ages of a columnar section, obtained by thermal ionization mass spectrometry, give a mean recurrence time of ∼1600 years of ML ≥ 5.5 earthquakes in the Dead Sea Graben. The earthquakes cluster in ∼10,000‐year periods separated by quiet periods of similar length. This distribution implies that a long‐term behavior of the Dead Sea Transform should be represented by a mean recurrence of at least 20,000 year record. This observation has ramifications for seismic hazard assessment based on shorter records.

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The freshwater Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the hypersaline Dead Sea are remnant lakes, evolved from ancient water bodies that filled the tectonic depressions along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) during the Neogene–Quartenary periods. We reconstructed the limnological history (level and composition) of Lake Kinneret during the past ∼40,000 years and compared it with the history of the contemporaneous Lake Lisan from the aspect of the regional and global climate history. The lake level reconstruction was achieved through a chronological and sedimentological investigation of exposed sedimentary sections in the Kinnarot basin trenches and cores drilled at the Ohalo II archeological site. Shoreline chronology was established by radiocarbon dating of organic remains and of Melanopsis shells.The major changes in Lake Kinneret level were synchronous with those of the southern Lake Lisan. Both lakes dropped significantly ∼42,000, ∼30,000, 23,800, and 13,000 yr ago and rose ∼39,000, 26,000, 5000, and 1600 yr ago. Between 26,000 and 24,000 yr ago, the lakes merged into a unified water body and lake level achieved its maximum stand of ∼170 m below mean sea level (m bsl). Nevertheless, the fresh and saline water properties of Lake Kinneret and Lake Lisan, respectively, have been preserved throughout the 40,000 years studied. Calcium carbonate was always deposited as calcite in Lake Kinneret and as aragonite in Lake Lisan–Dead Sea, indicating that the Dead Sea brine (which supports aragonite production) never reached or affected Lake Kinneret, even during the period of lake high stand and convergence. The synchronous level fluctuation of lakes Kinneret, Lisan, and the Holocene Dead Sea is consistent with the dominance of the Atlantic–Mediterranean rain system on the catchment of the basin and the regional hydrology. The major drops in Lake Kinneret–Lisan levels coincide with the timing of cold spells in the North Atlantic that caused a shut down of rains in the East Mediterranean and the lakes drainage area.

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Earthquake-induced fluidizations and suspensions of lake sediments, associated with syndepositional faults, form a paleoseismic record in the Dead Sea graben. The association of fluidized beds with surface faulting supports the recognition of mixed layers as reliable earthquake indicators and provides a tool for the study of very long term (>70 kar) seismicity along the Dead Sea transform. The faults compose a fault zone that offsets laminated sediments of the late Pleistocene Lake Lisan. They exhibit displacements of as much as 2 m. Layers of massive mixtures of laminated fragments are interpreted as disturbed beds, each formed by an earthquake. The undisturbed laminated layers between these mixed layers represent the interseismic interval. A typical vertical slip of about 0.5 m per event is separated by several hundred years of quiescence. The fault zone lies within the Dead Sea graben, 2 km east of Masada, where archaeology and historical accounts indicate repeated strong earthquake damage. The distribution of strikes in the fault zone resembles that of the faults exposed in and around the graben, including the seismogenic ones. The excellent exposures over hundreds of metres allow an unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution of slip events on faults.