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Holocene Earthquakes Inferred from a Fan-Delta Sequence in the Dead Sea Graben

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yehouda Enzel ,
Galit Kadan  and
Yehuda Eyal
Yehouda Enzel*
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences and Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel
Galit Kadan
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel
Yehuda Eyal
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed.
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Abstract

The Holocene sequence of the fan-delta of Nahal Darga, in Israel, records deformation associated with earthquakes related to the Dead Sea Transform in general and to the Jericho Fault in particular. The fan-delta sequence is well exposed, and 20 radiocarbon ages help to date the earthquakes that are inferred from (a) displacement along faults, (b) liquefaction features associated with 11 separate sandy and silty layers, and (c) slumped allocthonous bodies of sediments located directly above one of the main splays of the Jericho Fault. On average, an earthquake larger than M 5.5 has occurred approximately every 600 years. This estimate is based on the earthquake record of the complete stratigraphic sequence, with erosional hiatuses omitted from the calculations. The most recently deformed layer is related to the 1927 Jericho (M L 6.2) earthquake. This layer provides a modern analog for the style of soft-sediment deformation associated with earthquakes in the late Pleistocene and Holocene silty sand beds of the fan-delta complexes of the Dead Sea and its predecessor, Lake Lisan.

Keywords

Dead SeaIsraelfan deltaHoloceneneotectonicsearthquakes
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 34 - 48
Copyright
University of Washington

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