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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 33, L24314, doi:10.1029/2006GL027890, 2006

Seismic imaging of deep low-velocity zone beneath the Dead Sea basin and transform fault: Implications for strain localization and crustal rigidity

Uri S. ten Brink

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA


Abdallah S. Al-Zoubi

Surveying and Geomatics Department, Al-Balqa' Applied University, Salt, Jordan


Claudia H. Flores

U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA


Yair Rotstein

Geophysical Institute of Israel, Lod, Israel


Isam Qabbani

Natural Resources Authority, Amman, Jordan


Steve H. Harder

Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA


G. Randy Keller

Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA


Abstract

New seismic observations from the Dead Sea basin (DSB), a large pull-apart basin along the Dead Sea transform (DST) plate boundary, show a low velocity zone extending to a depth of 18 km under the basin. The lower crust and Moho are not perturbed. These observations are incompatible with the current view of mid-crustal strength at low temperatures and with support of the basin's negative load by a rigid elastic plate. Strain softening in the middle crust is invoked to explain the isostatic compensation and the rapid subsidence of the basin during the Pleistocene. Whether the deformation is influenced by the presence of fluids and by a long history of seismic activity on the DST, and what the exact softening mechanism is, remain open questions. The uplift surrounding the DST also appears to be an upper crustal phenomenon but its relationship to a mid-crustal strength minimum is less clear. The shear deformation associated with the transform plate boundary motion appears, on the other hand, to cut throughout the entire crust.

Received 15 August 2006; accepted 15 November 2006; published 23 December 2006.

Keywords: Dead Sea; strain softening; crustal rheology.

Index Terms: 7203 Seismology: Body waves; 8045 Structural Geology: Role of fluids; 8110 Tectonophysics: Continental tectonics: general (0905); 8118 Tectonophysics: Dynamics and mechanics of faulting (8004); 8168 Tectonophysics: Stresses: general.

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Citation: ten Brink, U. S., A. S. Al-Zoubi, C. H. Flores, Y. Rotstein, I. Qabbani, S. H. Harder, and G. R. Keller (2006), Seismic imaging of deep low-velocity zone beneath the Dead Sea basin and transform fault: Implications for strain localization and crustal rigidity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L24314, doi:10.1029/2006GL027890.