STRUCTURE AND OFFSET OF THE DEAD SEA FAULT SYSTEM: SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY

Upper Cretaceous obduction in southeastern Turkey (Karadut and Kocali complexes), Syria (Hatay ophiolite), and Cyprus (Troodos ophiolite) emplaced portions of the southern Tethys sea floor and continental rise onto the northern margin of the African-Arabian passive continental margin. The leading edge of these allochthons displays approximately 90 km of left slip across the north-trending, seismically active, Dead Sea fault system (DSFS) in Syria (surface exposure) and Turkey (subsurface). Offset in Israel is reportedly 125 km. The 35 km difference between the two segments may be taken up by intra-Arabian plate shortening in the Palmyra fold belt of Syria, and/or by movement along older strands of the DSFS beneath the eastern Mediterranean sea: these strands would connect on the north with the northeast-trending Iskenderun pull-apart basin (Turkish plate).

In northern Syria the DSFS consists of three strands. Between Antakya and Maras, Turkey, one strand dies out northward into en echelon folds: strike-slip on the other two changes to oblique slip along the N15oE-trending, Hassa graben (pull-apart basin). This 125 km by 15 km feature connects the DSFS and the N60oE-trending East Anatolian fault system (EAFS) (strike slip). The bounding faults of the Hassa graben comprise right echelon segments five to 30 km long that overlap as ramp structures in transfer zones. Seismic profiles across the graben show positive flower structures and rotated fault blocks parallel to the graben margins. Abundant basalt flows were probably fed through crustal-penetrating faults. Small, right echelon grabens continue for 70 km northeastward from Hassa graben along the EAFS.