Four thousand years of seismicity along the Dead Sea Rift

Abstract

A study of major earthquake occurrence along the Dead Sea transform (35.50-36.50 E; 27.20-37.50 N) during the past four millenia has been attempted. Geological, archaeological, biblical, historical, and seismologicaJ evidence were integrated in an effort to quantify the space-time distribution of seismicity in the said province. The ovcrM1 earthquake activity in the conterminous Near East indicates a stable pattern and appeared to have been stationary over the examined time window. About 110 earthquakes in the magnitude range 6.7 < ML _• 8.3 affected the area during the past 2500 years. Of these, 42 originated along the Dead Sea fault system itself, while 68 were imported from the Helenic-Cyprian arcs and the Anatolian-Elburz-Zagros fault systems. These events were responsible for the repeated destruction of many cultural centers. In the Dead Sea region proper, the major seismic activity since 2100 B.C.E. (Before Christian Era), has been confined to the vicinity of its eastern shore with extremal seismicity at its southern tip near the prehistorical site of Bab-a-Dara'a (31 ø 15'N, 35 o 32'E). This may constitute the first solid evidence that the Biblical "cities of the Plain" (Sodom, Gommorah, etc.) were located there. Recent studies of earthquake deformations in the Lisan deposits near Bab-a-Dara'a, agree with our findings. At the present time, a magnitude 6• earthquake is pending at the northern edge of the Levant rift, with its average recurrence interval (83 years) exceeded by one standard deviation (32 years). INTRODUCTIONThe Near East is probably the only region on Earth where evidence for earthquake activity has been documented in one way or another over the past four millenia. The interpretation of these valuable data, in the light of current tectonic models [Freund, 1965; Ben-Menahem and A boodi, 1971, Ben-Menahem et al., 1976] and with the aid of tools provided by modern seismology, calls for a comparative analysis of all available geological, historical, archaeological, and seismological findings. The present study reports results from these four complementary disciplines. Our well-defined geological province extends along some 1140 kin: from offshore southern tip of the Sinai peninsula to the collision zone between Arabia and Anatolia and the East Anatolian fault system at the Kara-Su junction. Major earthquakes with epicenters outside this region, such as the Zagros and north Anatolian faultsystems, Aegean Sea, Crete, Greece, and the eastern Mediterranean basin, were also felt and even caused severe damage in the Near East. A schematic map of the region is shown in Figure 1. The numbers giving the displacements represent their cummulative values over a period of about 10 my. Figure 2 shows epicenters of earthquakes with ML >_ 7.4 (solid circles) that were felt in Jerusalem The main sources of this epoch are Talmudic and post-Talmudic literature. Roman, Arabic and medieval literature, reports and books of pilgrims, historians, chronologists, travellers, and priests; eyewitness reports of the effects ...

Different styles of faulting deformation along the Dead Sea Transform and possible consequences for the recurrence of major earthquakes

“…SF, GF), given that the regional stress field is the same. This assumption is consistent with studies of historical earthquakes and palaeoseismic investigations (Table 2; Ben-Menahem, 1991;Klinger et al, 2000, Begin et al, 2005, Kagan et al, 2005.…”

“…The region along the AF segment has been the least seismically active region during the past 3000 years, whereas the northern segments were the most seismically active zones along the DST (Ben-Menahem, 1991). Kagan et al 2005 …”

12,000-Year-Long Record of 10 to 13 Paleoearthquakes on the Yammouneh Fault, Levant Fault System, Lebanon

“…The Quaternary rate of slip on the LFS is poorly constrained, with current estimates ranging from 2 to 8 mm/ yr (Chu and Gordon, 1998;Klinger et al, 2000a;Niemi et al, 2001;McClusky et al, 2003;Meghraoui et al, 2003;Gomez et al, 2003;Wdowinski et al, 2004;Daëron et al, 2004;Daëron, 2005;Mahmoud et al, 2005). A rich body of historical sources and archaeological data, extending back more than 26 centuries, testifies to the occurrence of numerous strong (M Ͼ7), destructive earthquakes along this plate boundary (e.g., Poirier and Taher, 1980;Abou Karaki, 1987;Ben-Menahem, 1991;Ambraseys et al, 1994;Guidoboni et al, 1994;Guidoboni and Comastri, 2005). Nevertheless, there are few constraints on the return times of such events or on their possible time clustering at the scale of several centuries.…”

The Ruin of the Roman Temple of Kedesh, Israel; Example of a Precariously Balanced Archaeological Structure Used as a Seismoscope

“…In numerous historic, palaeo-and archaeoseismological studies, evidence of past earthquakes have been researched and catalogs for the last 2000 years compiled [e.g. Garfunkel 1981, Ben-Menahman 1991, Ambraseys and Barazangi 1989, Klinger et al 2000a, Migowski et al 2004, Wdowin-ski et al 2004, Marco et al 2005a, Ellenblum 2015. In total, 31 pre-instrumental earthquakes could be identified (Table 1).…”