Global Positioning System measurements of strain accumulation and slip transfer through the restraining bend along the Dead Sea fault system in Lebanon

Authors: Gomez, Francisco¹; Karam, Gebran²; Khawlie, Mohamad³; McClusky, Simon⁴; Vernant, Philippe⁴; Reilinger, Robert⁴; Jaafar, Rani¹; Tabet, Charles⁵; Khair, Kamal⁶; Barazangi, Muawia⁷

Source: Geophysical Journal International, Volume 168, Number 3, March 2007 , pp. 1021-1028(8)

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing

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Abstract:

SUMMARY

Approximately 4 yr of campaign and continuous Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements across the Dead Sea fault system (DSFS) in Lebanon provide direct measurements of interseismic strain accumulation along a 200-km-long restraining bend in this continental transform fault. Late Cenozoic transpression within this restraining bend has maintained more than 3000 m of topography in the Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon ranges. The GPS velocity field indicates 4-5 mm yr⁻¹ of relative plate motion is transferred through the restraining bend to the northern continuation of the DSFS in northwestern Syria. Near-field GPS velocities are generally parallel to the major, left-lateral strike-slip faults, suggesting that much of the expected convergence across the restraining bend is likely accommodated by different structures beyond the aperture of the GPS network (e.g. offshore Lebanon and, possibly, the Palmyride fold belt in SW Syria). Hence, these geodetic results suggest a partitioning of crustal deformation involving strike-slip displacements in the interior of the restraining bend, and crustal shortening in the outer part of the restraining bend. Within the uncertainties, the GPS-based rates of fault slip compare well with Holocene-averaged estimates of slip along the two principal strike-slip faults: the Yammouneh and Serghaya faults. Of these two faults, more slip occurs on the Yammouneh fault, which constitutes the primary plate boundary structure between the Arabia and Sinai plates. Hence, the Yammouneh fault is the structural linkage that transfers slip to the northern part of the transform in northwestern Syria. From the perspective of the regional earthquake hazard, the Yammouneh fault is presently locked and accumulating interseismic strain.

Keywords: crustal deformation; Dead Sea fault system; fault motion; Global Positioning System (GPS); Neotectonics; transform faults

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.03328.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211., Email: fgomez@missouri.edu 2: Department of Civil Engineering, Lebanese American University, Jbail, Lebanon 3: Lebanese National Center for Remote Sensing, Beirut, Lebanon 4: Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 5: Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research, Beirut, Lebanon 6: Hasbaya, Lebanon 7: Institute for the Study of the Continents, Snee Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

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