The active Dead Sea fault system crosses the Dead Sea basin, generating significant earthquakes and ongoing seismic activity, as evidenced by the 1927 Mw 6.2 earthquake that ruptured the northwestern Dead Sea. Most of the land in the region is characterized by unstable lake sediments and escarpments exposed to seismic risks such as surface rupture, amplified ground motion and landslides.
We present methodology and initial results for identifying active faults along the basin and dating slip episodes. Fault zones are analyzed using integrated stratigraphic and structural approaches, followed by dating of cemented carbonate veins, cataclasites, and sedimentary layers using U–Th series and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) methods. These analyses allow evaluation of slip displacements and slip rates. Our preliminary results indicate that both the marginal faults and the main strike-slip structure, the Jericho Fault, were active during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The marginal faults are predominantly normal faults that delineate the subsided basin from its western margins. Our results indicate that faults near Ein Feshcha preserve evidence of surface-rupturing activity, exposed both along the main topographic scarp (Matzok-Ha’He’etekim) and within a nearby alluvial fan east of the scarp, north of the Kidron stream outlet. These observations demonstrate that both marginal fault systems should be regarded as active. OSL dating of faulted sediments along the Jericho Fault provides clear evidence for continued surface-rupturing activity, including deformation of the Lisan Fm. and overlying Holocene sediments. Structural analysis indicates a combination of strike-slip motion and east-west extension along this fault.
Additional sampling of newly identified outcrops is currently underway along the Jericho Fault and the western margins of the basin and will better constrain the timing of the most recent surface-rupturing events.