GPS measurements of current crustal movements along the Dead Sea Fault

[1] A network of 11 continuous GPS stations was constructed in Israel between 1996 and 2001 to monitor current crustal movements across the Dead Sea Fault (DSF). Analysis of the GPS measurements with respect to the ITRF2000 Reference Frame yields time series of daily site positions containing both secular and seasonal variations. Horizontal secular variations (station velocities) are evaluated with respect to the main tectonic element in the region, the DSF. We use six velocity vectors west of the DSF to define the ITRF2000 pole of the Sinai sub-plate, and rotate the velocity field for all stations into the Sinai reference frame (SRF). The velocity vectors reveal that (1) relative station movements are less than 4 mm/yr; (2) the nine stations located west of the DSF show no statistically significant motion with respect to the SRF; and (3) the two stations located in the Golan Heights (KATZ and ELRO) and a station in Damascus, Syria (UDMC) show 1.7–2.8 mm/yr northward motion with respect to Sinai, indicating a left-lateral motion along the DSF. Using locked-fault models, we estimate the current slip rate across the DSF as 3.3 ± 0.4 mm/yr. If we exclude the northern sites (ELRO and UDMC), which are located adjacent to the compressional jog of Mount Hermon, our estimate increases to 3.7 ± 0.4 mm/yr. The calculated ITRF2000 Sinai, Eurasia, and Nubia poles and a published pole for Arabia allow us to calculate the current relative plate motion of Sinai-Arabia and Sinai-Nubia.

[1]  I. Zak,et al.  Age and Rate of the Sinistral Movement along the Dead Sea Rift , 1968, Nature.

[2]  Zvi Garfunkel,et al.  Active faulting in the dead sea rift , 1981 .

[4]  Yehuda Bock,et al.  Southern California permanent GPS geodetic array: Spatial filtering of daily positions for estimating coseismic and postseismic displacements induced by the 1992 Landers earthquake , 1997 .

[5]  A. Shapira,et al.  Source parameters and scaling relationships of earthquakes in Israel , 1993 .

[6]  R. Nikolaidis.  Observation of geodetic and seismic deformation with the Global Positioning System , 2002 .

[7]  T. Rockwell,et al.  Crusader castle torn apart by earthquake at dawn, 20 May 1202 , 1998 .

[8]  A. Hofstetter,et al.  Seismotectonics of the Sinai subplate – the eastern Mediterranean region , 2003 .

[9]  Amos Nur,et al.  Erroneous interpretation of historical documents related to the epicenter of the 1927 Jericho earthquake in the Holy Land , 2002 .

[10]  Z. Ben‐Avraham,et al.  Sediments and structure of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba)—Northern Red Sea , 1979 .

[11]  D. Sandwell,et al.  Crustal deformation during 6 years spanning the Mw = 7 . 2 1995 Nuweiba earthquake , analyzed by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar , 1995 .

[12]  X. Pichon,et al.  A plate-tectonic analysis of the Red Sea—Gulf of Aden Area☆ , 1978 .

[13]  Yehuda Bock,et al.  Southern California permanent GPS geodetic array: Error analysis of daily position estimates and site velocities , 1997 .

[14]  Hanan Ginat,et al.  Translocated Plio-Pleistocene drainage systems along the Arava fault of the Dead Sea transform , 1998 .

[15]  Y. Bock,et al.  Anatomy of apparent seasonal variations from GPS‐derived site position time series , 2001 .

[16]  Z. Garfunkel.  Internal structure of the Dead Sea leaky transform (rift) in relation to plate kinematics , 1981 .

[17]  Y. Eyal.  Stress field fluctuations along the Dead Sea rift since the middle Miocene , 1996 .

[18]  R. Gordon,et al.  Current plate motions across the Red Sea , 1998 .

[19]  A. Hofstetter,et al.  Seismicity of the eastern Mediterranean region: Perspective from the Sinai subplate , 1996 .

[20]  Zuheir Altamimi,et al.  ITRF2000: A new release of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame for earth science applications , 2002 .

[21]  E. Jordan.  Seismic behaviour of the Dead Sea fault along Araba valley , 2000 .

[22]  A. Hofstetter,et al.  Three-dimensional elastic earthquake modelling based on integrated seismological and InSAR data: the Mw = 7.2 Nuweiba earthquake, gulf of Elat/Aqaba 1995 November , 2003 .

[23]  T. Niemi,et al.  Late Pleistocene and Holocene slip rate of the Northern Wadi Araba fault, Dead Sea Transform, Jordan , 2001 .

[24]  J. Avouac,et al.  Seismic behaviour of the Dead Sea fault along Araba valley, Jordan , 2000 .

[25]  A. Quennell.  THE STRUCTURAL AND GEOMORPHIC EVOLUTION OF THE DEAD SEA RIFT , 1958, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London.

[26]  W. Augath.  Crustal Deformation , 2003 .

[27]  David E. Smith,et al.  Horizontal crustal motion in the central and eastern Mediterranean inferred from satellite laser ranging measurements , 1994 .

[28]  A. Pınar,et al.  Source inversion of the 1993 and 1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquakes , 1997 .

[29]  Y. Bock,et al.  The GIL network of continuous GPS monitoring in Israel for geodetic and geophysical applications , 2001 .

[30]  Z. Garfunkel.  The pre-Quaternary geology of Israel , 1988 .

[31]  Simon McClusky,et al.  GPS constraints on Africa (Nubia) and Arabia plate motions , 2003 .

[32]  A. Ben-menahem,et al.  Micro- and macroseismicity of the Dead Sea rift and off-coast eastern Mediterranean , 1981 .

[33]  J. C. Savage,et al.  Geodetic determination of relative plate motion in central California , 1973 .

[34]  F. Gomez,et al.  Evidence for 830 years of seismic quiescence from palaeoseismology, archaeoseismology and historical seismicity along the Dead Sea fault in Syria , 2003 .

[35]  Y. Bock,et al.  Crustal deformation during 6 years spanning the M w = 7.2 1995 Nuweiba earthquake, analyzed by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar , 2001 .

[36]  Timothy H. Dixon,et al.  REVEL: A model for Recent plate velocities from space geodesy , 2002 .

[37]  H. Thio,et al.  Source mechanism of the 22/11/1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake and its aftershock sequence , 2003 .

[38]  L. Rivera,et al.  Active faulting in the Gulf of Aqaba: New knowledge from the MW 7.3 earthquake of 22 November 1995 , 1999 .

[39]  Z. Garfunkel,et al.  The Shear along the Dead Sea Rift [and Discussion] , 1970 .

[40]  Demitris Paradissis,et al.  Global Positioning System constraints on plate kinematics and dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean and Caucasus , 2000 .

[41]  J. C. Savage,et al.  Strain accumulation in Owens Valley, California, 1974 to 1988 , 1995, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

[42]  Y. Eyal,et al.  Tectonic analysis of the Dead Sea Rift Region since the Late-Cretaceous based on mesostructures , 1983 .

[43]  J. Avouac,et al.  Slip rate on the Dead Sea transform fault in northern Araba valley (Jordan) , 2000 .

[44]  A. Agnon,et al.  817-Year-old walls offset sinistrally 2.1 m by the Dead Sea transform, Israel , 1997 .

[45]  A. Hofstetter.  Seismic observations of the 22/11/1995 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake sequence , 2003 .

[46]  Z. Garfunkel,et al.  Plate kinematics of the circum Red Sea—a re-evaluation , 1987 .

[47]  P. Molnar,et al.  Plate Tectonics of the Red Sea and East Africa , 1970, Nature.

[48]  Yehuda Bock,et al.  Current plate motion across the Dead Sea Fault from three years of continuous GPS monitoring , 2002 .

[49]  J. Letouzey,et al.  Paleo-stress fields around the Mediterranean since the Mesozoic from microtectonics; comparison with plate tectonic data , 1980 .

[50]  Yehuda Bock,et al.  Coseismic deformation associated with the November 1995, MW = 7.1 Nuweiba earthquake, Gulf of Elat (Aqaba), detected by synthetic aperture radar interferometry , 1999 .

[51]  G. Even-Tzur.  Sensitivity analysis of deformation monitoring networks in the north of Israel , 2001 .

[52]  J. Wilson,et al.  A New Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift , 1965, Nature.