Israel Journal of Earth Sciences: special issue on the Dead Sea Rift

I hope you have reserved some time for reading – here comes plenty of great new material on one of the most interesting tectonic features on earth, the Dead Sea Transform. The Israel Journal of Earth Sciences has published a special issue: The Dead Sea Rift as a natural laboratory for neotectonics and paleoseismology, Volume 58, Number 3 – 4. The papers are an outcome of the 2009 INQUA joint Israel/Jordan fieldtrip with the same name. I was lucky enough to have participated in that field trip. It was for sure one of the best field trips I ever had.

The archeological site of Susita, close to Lake Kineret. Lots of archeoseismological evidence here.

Here’s the content of the Special Issue. If you can’t access the Journal, think about dropping a mail to the author. The bold ones are those who especially focus on paleoseismology/archeoseismology…

• Raphael Freund 1933-1980, 137 – 137, Geoff King, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.137 (This one’s free!)
• Introduction: The Dead Sea Rift as a natural laboratory for neotectonics and paleoseismology, 139 – 145, Amotz Agnon, Rivka Amit, Susan Hough, Alessandro Maria Michetti, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.139 (This one’s free!)
• Results of geophysical studies across the Dead Sea Transform: The Arava/Araba Valley and the Dead Sea Basin, 147 – 161, Michael Weber, Zusanna Alasonati-Tašárová, Khalil Abu-Ayyash, Zvi Ben-Avraham, Sungchan Choi, Jaser Darwish, Radwan El-Kelani, Zvi Garfunkel, H.-J. Götze, Gottfried Grünthal, Abraham Hofstetter, Dagmar Kesten, James Mechie, Uwe Meyer, Ayman Mohsen, Marco Paschke, Alexei Petrunin, Trond Ryberg, Stefan V. Sobolev, Manfred Stiller, the DESERT and DESIRE Groups, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.147
• Subsurface geology of the southern Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Dead Sea Transform – Evidence from seismic reflection data, 163 – 175, Yuval Ben-Gai, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.163
• Waveform moment tensor inversion of earthquakes in Israel and adjacent regions, 177 – 192, Nadezda Kraeva, Abraham Hofstetter, Tatiana Meirova, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.177
• Geodetic study of crustal deformation across the Dead Sea Fault system in the Jordan Gorge area, Northern Israel, 193 – 201, Gilad Even-Tzur and Yariv Hamiel, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.193
• Convergent strike-slip across the Dead Sea Fault in northern Israel, imaged by high-resolution seismic reflection data, 203 – 216, Ram Weinberger, Uri Schattner, Benjamin Medvedev, Uri Frieslander, Amihai Sneh, Yehudit Harlavan, Michael R. Gross, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.203
• The long- and short-term lateral slip and seismicity along the Dead Sea Transform: An interim evaluation, 217 – 235, Zvi Garfunkel, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.217
• Chronometry of paleo-earthquakes in the late Quaternary Dead Sea basin, 237 – 255, Mordechai Stein, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.237
• Dating speleoseismites near the Dead Sea Transform and the Carmel Fault: Clues to coupling of a plate boundary and its branch, 257 – 273, Yael Braun, Elisa Kagan, Miryam Bar-Matthews, Avner Ayalon, Amotz Agnon, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.257
• Quaternary earthquakes and landslides in the Sea of Galilee area, the Dead Sea Transform: Paleoseismic analysis and implication to the current hazard, 275 – 294, Oded Katz, Rivka Amit, Gony Yagoda-Biran, Yossef H. Hatzor, Naomi Porat, Benjamin Medvedev, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.275
• The 1170 and 1202 CE Dead Sea Rift earthquakes and long-term magnitude distribution of the Dead Sea Fault Zone, 295 – 308, Susan E. Hough and Ron Avni, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.295
• Sensitivity of earthquake-toppled columns to small changes in ground motion and geometry, 309 – 326, Klaus-G. Hinzen, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.309
• A critical evaluation of tsunami records reported for the Levant Coast from the second millennium BCE to the present, 327 – 354, Amos Salamon, Thomas Rockwell, Emanuela Guidoboni, Alberto Comastri, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.2-3.327 (This one’s free!)
• Late Holocene events that shaped the shoreline at the northern Gulf of Aqaba recorded by a buried fossil reef, 355 – 368, Yonathan Shaked, Boaz Lazar, Shmuel Marco, Mordechai Stein, Amotz Agnon, DOI: 10.1560/IJES.58.3-4.355

Here are some pics from the field trip:

Archeoseismological damages in Northern Israel

A giant collapsed column in Petra, Jordan

The most beautiful seismite I've ever seen, close to the Dead Sea.

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