River terrace development in the NE Mediterranean region (Syria and Turkey): Patterns in relation to crustal type

It is widely recognized that the optimal development of river terraces globally has been in the temperate latitudes, with NW and Central Europe being areas of particular importance for the preservation of such archives of Quaternary environmental change. There is also a growing consensus that the principal drivers of terrace formation have been climatic fluctuation against a background of progressive (but variable) uplift. Nonetheless river terraces are widely preserved in the Mediterranean region, where they have often been attributed to the effects of neotectonic activity, with a continuing debate about the relative significance of fluctuating temperature (glacials–interglacials) and precipitation (pluvials–interpluvials). Research in Syria and southern–central Turkey (specifically in the valleys of the Tigris and Ceyhan in Turkey, the Kebir in Syria and the trans-border rivers Orontes and Euphrates) has underlined the importance of uplift rates in dictating the preservation pattern of fluvial archives and has revealed different patterns that can be related to crustal type. The NE Mediterranean coastal region has experienced unusually rapid uplift in the Late Quaternary. The relation between the Kebir terraces and the staircase of interglacial raised beaches preserved along the Mediterranean coastline of NW Syria reinforces previous conclusions that the emplacement of the fluvial terrace deposits in the Mediterranean has occurred during colder climatic episodes

Paleoseismic History of the Dead Sea Fault Zone

International audienceThe aim of this entry is to describe the DSF as a transform plate boundary pointing out the rate of activedeformation, fault segmentation, and geometrical complexities as a control of earthquake ruptures. Thedistribution of large historical earthquakes from a revisited seismicity catalogue using detailedmacroseismic maps allows the correlation between the location of past earthquakes and fault segments.The recent results of paleoearthquake investigations (paleoseismic and archeoseismic) with a recurrenceinterval of large events and long-term slip rate are presented and discussed along with the identification ofseismic gaps along the fault. Finally, the implications for the seismic hazard assessment are also discussed

First indications of high slip rates on active reverse faults NW of Damascus, Syria, from observations of deformed Quaternary sediments: implications for the partitioning of crustal deformation in the Middle Eastern region

Recent research on rates of crustal shortening within the Palmyra Fold Belt (PFB) in Syria has drawn attention to the possibility that reverse faults near the city of Damascus, which adjoins the SW PFB, have significant slip rates. We infer that the Damascus Fault, directly adjacent to the city, has developed a throw of ~ 2500 m and report the discovery of the en echelon Bassimeh Fault, with a throw of ~ 1000 m, this fault being revealed by warping of the local bedrock and of a terrace, of inferred Late Pleistocene age, of the River Barada. We estimate that this set of faults became active circa 0.9 Ma, synchronous with changes to the pattern of faulting previously reported farther southwest in the northern Jordan Valley. Vertical slip rates on the Bassimeh and Damascus faults of ~ 1.1 and ~ 2.8 mm a− 1, respectively, are thus estimated. We also infer that large historical earthquakes, previously attributed to left-lateral faulting farther west on the Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ), probably occurred on this set of reverse faults; these faults thus represent a significant hazard to the city of Damascus. Our observations indicate that as much as half of the northward motion of the Arabian plate, relative to the African plate, may be ‘absorbed’ by crustal shortening within the PFB, potentially explaining the low slip rate recently measured geodetically on the northern DSFZ in western Syria