Collaborative Research: Crustal Deformation and Earthquake Behavior in the Lebanese Restraining Bend of the Dead Sea Fault System (Lebanon and SW Syria)

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Scientists from the University of Missouri and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with scientists from Lebanon and Syria are investigating the active tectonics and earthquake behavior of a 200-km-long restraining bend along the Dead Sea fault system in Lebanon and southwestern Syria. The Dead Sea fault system ranks among the large, continental transform systems of the world and comprises a key element in the plate tectonic framework of the eastern Mediterranean region. Thus, in addition to elucidating the regional tectonic and geodynamic processes, this research is addressing scientific questions relevant to other continental transforms worldwide. The team is investigating the: (1) earthquake cycle along a large strike-slip fault, including earthquake interactions between adjacent structures (e.g., stress loading), and how this relates to crustal rheology; (2) strain partitioning and uplift within a large restraining bend, and its relationship to internal deformation of the Arabian plate; and (3) oblique plate motions and predicted along-strike variations in slip rate of the central and northern Dead Sea fault system. To address these problems, the team is conducting: (1) neotectonic field studies to assess detailed kinematics and fault slip rates within the restraining bend; (2) paleoseismic investigations to assess possible fault segmentation and to construct robust earthquake histories, (3) tectonic geodesy, using GPS and InSAR, in the far-field and near-field to determine short term rates of fault slip and kinematics in three-dimensions, and (4) geophysical modeling of fault mechanics from geodetic and geological data, the earthquake cycle using geological/geodetic data and paleoseismology, and large plate motions of the Sinai and Arabia plates. These studies are taking advantage of a lengthy, well documented, and relatively complete historical record of large earthquakes (approximately magnitude 6.5) that spans more than two millennia. Such historical records are unavailable for nearly all other plate boundaries in the world and are helping to bridge the critical gap between geologic and geodetic assessments of strain in the region.