Seismicity Induced at the Northern Dead Sea Transform Fault, Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) Basin, by Shallow Creep Involving a Salt Body

Abstract

The Dead Sea Transform Fault (Figure 1), a sinistral plate boundary (e.g., Freund et al., 1970), is longer than 1000 km and links spreading in the Red Sea with the Anatolian Fault System (Garfunkel, 1981;Sengör, 1979). The N-S-oriented fault has accumulated approximately 100 km of slip since the Neogene (Bartov et al., 1980;Garfunkel, 1981). Freund et al. (1970) and Garfunkel (1981) have suggested that an initial phase of 60 km slip involved pure transform motion, before a divergence component appeared. The southern sector of the transform is dominantly divergent with morpho-tectonic pull-apart basins (Figure 1): Gulf of Aqaba, Dead Sea, Beit Shean-Kinarot Basin, Hula Basin, and Marj 'Ayun (e.g., Ben-Avraham, 1985). Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) fills the northern reaches of the Beit Shean-Kinarot Basin (Figure 2a).

Transient Behavior and Interplay Between Seismic and Aseismic Deformation Near the Tip of a Creeping Segment: Insights From the Northern Jordan Valley Segment of the Dead Sea Fault

“…Furthermore, the locations and orientations of the 2018 seismic events are not located along the strike of the suggested secondary fault (Barnea Cohen et al, 2022;Wetzler et al, 2019). The third explanation was recently discussed by Barnea Cohen et al (2022). This study followed the studies of Hamiel et al (2016) and Hamiel and Piatibratova (2021), which found that the northern Jordan Valley segment of the DSF is creeping at shallow depths, and suggested that the shallow creep induces shallow seismic activity beneath the northern part of the Sea of Galilee.…”

“…3 of 9 Wetzler et al, 2019). The focal plane solutions of the 2013 and 2018 seismic events indicate normal faulting in the ESE-WNW direction (Barnea Cohen et al, 2022;Wetzler et al, 2019).…”

“…The third explanation was recently discussed by Barnea Cohen et al. (2022). This study followed the studies of Hamiel et al.…”

“…However, this secondary fault is not observed in other geophysical studies of the area (e.g., Hurwitz et al., 2002; Reznikov et al., 2004) and is not observed offshore of the Sea of Galilee. Furthermore, the locations and orientations of the 2018 seismic events are not located along the strike of the suggested secondary fault (Barnea Cohen et al., 2022; Wetzler et al., 2019). The third explanation was recently discussed by Barnea Cohen et al.…”

“…Two earthquake sequences occurred near the Sea of Galilee stepover and the northern tip of the northern Jordan Valley creeping segment (Figure 1; see also Barnea Cohen et al, 2022;Wetzler et al, 2019). The first seismic sequence occurred in October 2013 and had 20 M w > 2 earthquakes (Figure 2), with a maximum earthquake magnitude of M w 3.7 occurring on October 20, 2013.…”