Authors

Mohammad Abou Romeh, Rob Westaway, Mohamad Daoud, Youssef Radwan, Rayan Yassminh, Ahlam Khail, Abeer al-Ashkar, Susan Loughlin,  Katherine Arrell  and David Bridgland

Published in

Terra Nova, 21,427–437,2009

Abstract

The Africa—Arabia plate boundary comprises the Red Sea oceanic spreading centre and the left-lateral Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ); however, previous work has indicated kinematic inconsistency between its continental and oceanic parts. The Palmyra Fold Belt (PFB) splays ENE from the DSFZ in 5W Syria and persists for 400 km to the River Euphrates, but its significance within the regional pattern of active crustal deformation has hitherto been unclear. We report deformation of Euphrates terraces consistent with Quaternary right-lateral transpression within the PFB, indicating anticlockwise rotation (estimated as 0.30 Ma”1 about 36.0°N 39.8°E) of the Hock between the PFB and the northern DSFZ relative to the Arabian Plate interior. The northern DSFZ s shown to be kinematically consistent with the combination of Euler vectors for the PFB and the Red Sea spreading, resolving the inconsistency previously evident, The 5W PFB causes a significant earthquake hazard, previously unrecognized, to the city of Damascus.

Keywords

Active crustal shortening; Syria, terraces, Euphrates, GPS

Links

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3121.2009.00896.x

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230297840_Active_crustal_shortening_in_NE_Syria_revealed_by_deformed_terraces_of_the_River_Euphrates

http://www.nec.gov.sy/researches/Active%20crustal.pdf