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Geological offsets and age constraints along the northern Dead Sea fault, Syria
- Source :
- Journal of the Geological Society. Sept, 2010, Vol. 167 Issue 5, p1001, 8 p.
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- North of the Lebanese restraining bend, the northern Dead Sea fault in Syria cuts Late MiocenePliocene intraplate alkali basalts that have [sup.40]Ar/[sup.39]Ar ages ranging between 6.4 [+ or -] 0.1 and 3.7 [+ or -] 0.1 Ma. Despite a wide (40 m) gouge zone in places, only between 5.3 and 16.8 km of Pliocene Recent left-lateral offset occurs along the segment south of Mesyef, where up to 1100 m of down-to-the-east throw has been measured using the base Neogene volcanic rocks as a datum horizon. Although theoretically possible, there is no geological evidence for pre-Pliocene movement along the fault in NW Syria. The fault splays into two transtensional faults bounding the Pliocene A1-Ghab depression and cuts basalts dated at 4.0-3.7 Ma. The minor lateral geological offsets and matching of Mesozoic and Tertiary stratigraphy across the fault show that the northern Dead Sea fault is not a plate boundary, but merely an intraplate fault. The kinematics of NW Syria can be related to a dynamically evolving stress field with time from Miocene NW--SE compression to Pliocene--Recent north--south strike-slip faulting, coupled with minor anti-clockwise rotation, initiation of the Dead Sea left-lateral transtensional strike-slip fault and the transtensional Al-Ghab basin. Supplementary material: Analytical procedures, data tables and concordia diagrams are available at http:// www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18423. doi: 10.1144/0016-76492010-009.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00167649
- Volume :
- 167
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- Gale General OneFile
- Journal :
- Journal of the Geological Society
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsgcl.236567993