@article{WeberAbuAyyashAbueladasetal.2004,
  author    = {Weber, Michael H. and Abu-Ayyash, Khalil and Abueladas, Abdel-Rahman and Agnon, Amotz and Al-Amoush, H. and Babeyko, Andrey and Bartov, Yosef and Baumann, M. and Ben-Avraham, Zvi and Bock, G{\"u}nter and Bribach, Jens and El-Kelani, R. and Forster, A. and F{\"o}rster, Hans-J{\"u}rgen and Frieslander, U. and Garfunkel, Zvi and Grunewald, Steffen and Gotze, Hans-J{\"u}rgen and Haak, Volker and Haberland, Christian and Hassouneh, Mohammed and Helwig, S. and Hofstetter, Alfons and Jackel, K. H. and Kesten, Dagmar and Kind, Rainer and Maercklin, Nils and Mechie, James and Mohsen, Amjad and Neubauer, F. M. and Oberh{\"a}nsli, Roland and Qabbani, I. and Ritter, O. and Rumpker, G. and Rybakov, M. and Ryberg, Trond and Scherbaum, Frank and Schmidt, J. and Schulze, A. and Sobolev, Stephan Vladimir and Stiller, M. and Th,},
  title     = {The crustal structure of the Dead Sea Transform},
  year      = {2004},
  abstract  = {To address one of the central questions of plate tectonics-How do large transform systems work and what are their typical features?-seismic investigations across the Dead Sea Transform (DST), the boundary between the African and Arabian plates in the Middle East, were conducted for the first time. A major component of these investigations was a combined reflection/ refraction survey across the territories of Palestine, Israel and Jordan. The main results of this study are: (1) The seismic basement is offset by 3-5 km under the DST, (2) The DST cuts through the entire crust, broadening in the lower crust, (3) Strong lower crustal reflectors are imaged only on one side of the DST, (4) The seismic velocity sections show a steady increase in the depth of the crust-mantle transition (Moho) from 26 km at the Mediterranean to 39 km under the Jordan highlands, with only a small but visible, asymmetric topography of the Moho under the DST. These observations can be linked to the left-lateral movement of 105 km of the two plates in the last 17 Myr, accompanied by strong deformation within a narrow zone cutting through the entire crust. Comparing the DST and the San Andreas Fault (SAF) system, a strong asymmetry in subhorizontal lower crustal reflectors and a deep reaching deformation zone both occur around the DST and the SAF. The fact that such lower crustal reflectors and deep deformation zones are observed in such different transform systems suggests that these structures are possibly fundamental features of large transform plate boundaries},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MechieAbuAyyashBenAvrahametal.2005,
  author    = {Mechie, James and Abu-Ayyash, Khalil and Ben-Avraham, Zvi and El-Kelani, R. and Mohsen, Amjad and Rumpker, Georg and Saul, J. and Weber, Michael H.},
  title     = {Crustal shear velocity structure across the Dead Sea Transform from two-dimensional modelling of DESERT project explosion seismic data},
  year      = {2005},
  abstract  = {An analysis of the shear (S) waves recorded during the wide-angle reflection/refraction (WRR) experiment as part of the DESERT project crossing the Dead Sea Transform (DST) reveals average crustal S-wave velocities of 3.3-3.5 km s(-1) beneath the WRR profile. Together with average crustal P-wave velocities of 5.8-6.1 km s(-1) from an already published study this provides average crustal Poisson's ratios of 0.26-0.27 (V-p/V-s = 1.76-1.78) below the profile. The top two layers consisting predominantly of sedimentary rocks have S- wave velocities of 1.8-2.7kms(-1) and Poisson's ratios of 0.25-0.31 (V-p/V-s = 1.73-1.91). Beneath these two layers the seismic basement has average S- wave velocities of around 3.6 km s(-1) east of the DST and about 3.7 km s(-1) west of the DST and Poisson's ratios of 0.24-0.25 (V-p/V-s = 1.71-1.73). The lower crust has an average S-wave velocity of about 3.75 km s(-1) and an average Poisson's ratio of around 0.27 (V-p/V-s = 1.78). No Sn phase refracted through the uppermost mantle was observed. The results provide for the first time information from controlled source data on the crustal S-wave velocity structure for the region west of the DST in Israel and Palestine and agree with earlier results for the region east of the DST in the Jordanian highlands. A shear wave splitting study using SKS waves has found evidence for crustal anisotropy beneath the WRR profile while a receiver function study has found evidence for a lower crustal, high S-wave velocity layer east of the DST below the profile. Although no evidence was found in the S-wave data for either feature, the S-wave data are not incompatible with crustal anisotropy being present as the WRR profile only lies 30 degrees off the proposed symmetry axis of the anisotropy where the difference in the two S-wave velocities is still very small. In the case of the lower crustal, high S-wave velocity layer, if the velocity change at the top of this layer comprises a small first-order discontinuity underlain by a 2 km thick transition zone, instead of just a large first-order discontinuity, then both the receiver function data and the WRR data presented here can be satisfied. Finally, the S-wave velocities and Poisson's ratios which have been derived in this study are typical of continental crust and do not require extensional processes to explain them},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MechieAbuAyyashBenAvrahametal.2009,
  author    = {Mechie, James and Abu-Ayyash, Khalil and Ben-Avraham, Zvi and El-Kelani, Radwan and Qabbani, Isam and Weber, Michael H.},
  title     = {Crustal structure of the southern Dead Sea basin derived from project DESIRE wide-angle seismic data},
  issn      = {0956-540X},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04161.x},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {As part of the DEad Sea Integrated REsearch project (DESIRE) a 235 km long seismic wide-angle reflection/ refraction (WRR) profile was completed in spring 2006 across the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in the region of the southern Dead Sea basin (DSB). The DST with a total of about 107 km multi-stage left-lateral shear since about 18 Ma ago, accommodates the movement between the Arabian and African plates. It connects the spreading centre in the Red Sea with the Taurus collision zone in Turkey over a length of about 1 100 km. With a sedimentary infill of about 10 km in places, the southern DSB is the largest pull-apart basin along the DST and one of the largest pull-apart basins on Earth. The WRR measurements comprised 11 shots recorded by 200 three-component and 400 one-component instruments spaced 300 m to 1.2 km apart along the whole length of the E-W trending profile. Models of the P-wave velocity structure derived from the WRR data show that the sedimentary infill associated with the formation of the southern DSB is about 8.5 km thick beneath the profile. With around an additional 2 km of older sediments, the depth to the seismic basement beneath the southern DSB is about 11 km below sea level beneath the profile. Seismic refraction data from an earlier experiment suggest that the seismic basement continues to deepen to a maximum depth of about 14 km, about 10 km south of the DESIRE profile. In contrast, the interfaces below about 20 km depth, including the top of the lower crust and the Moho, probably show less than 3 km variation in depth beneath the profile as it crosses the southern DSB. Thus the Dead Sea pull-apart basin may be essentially an upper crustal feature with upper crustal extension associated with the left- lateral motion along the DST. The boundary between the upper and lower crust at about 20 km depth might act as a decoupling zone. Below this boundary the two plates move past each other in what is essentially a shearing motion. Thermo-mechanical modelling of the DSB supports such a scenario. As the DESIRE seismic profile crosses the DST about 100 km north of where the DESERT seismic profile crosses the DST, it has been possible to construct a crustal cross-section of the region before the 107 km left-lateral shear on the DST occurred.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WeberAbuAyyashAbueladasetal.2009,
  author    = {Weber, Michael H. and Abu-Ayyash, Khalil and Abueladas, Abdel-Rahman and Agnon, Amotz and Alasonati-Taš{\´a}rov{\´a}, Zuzana and Al-Zubi, Hashim and Babeyko, Andrey and Bartov, Yuval and Bauer, Klaus and Becken, Michael and Bedrosian, Paul A. and Ben-Avraham, Zvi and Bock, G{\"u}nter and Bohnhoff, Marco and Bribach, Jens and Dulski, Peter and Ebbing, Joerg and El-Kelani, Radwan J. and Foerster, Andrea and F{\"o}rster, Hans-J{\"u}rgen and Frieslander, Uri and Garfunkel, Zvi and G{\"o}tze, Hans-J{\"u}rgen and Haak, Volker and Haberland, Christian and Hassouneh, Mohammed and Helwig, Stefan L. and Hofstetter, Alfons and Hoffmann-Rothe, Arne and Jaeckel, Karl-Heinz and Janssen, Christoph and Jaser, Darweesh and Kesten, Dagmar and Khatib, Mohammed Ghiath and Kind, Rainer and Koch, Olaf and Koulakov, Ivan and Laske, Maria Gabi and Maercklin, Nils},
  title     = {Anatomy of the Dead Sea transform from lithospheric to microscopic scale},
  issn      = {8755-1209},
  doi       = {10.1029/2008rg000264},
  year      = {2009},
  abstract  = {Fault zones are the locations where motion of tectonic plates, often associated with earthquakes, is accommodated. Despite a rapid increase in the understanding of faults in the last decades, our knowledge of their geometry, petrophysical properties, and controlling processes remains incomplete. The central questions addressed here in our study of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in the Middle East are as follows: (1) What are the structure and kinematics of a large fault zone? (2) What controls its structure and kinematics? (3) How does the DST compare to other plate boundary fault zones? The DST has accommodated a total of 105 km of left-lateral transform motion between the African and Arabian plates since early Miocene (similar to 20 Ma). The DST segment between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, called the Arava/Araba Fault (AF), is studied here using a multidisciplinary and multiscale approach from the mu m to the plate tectonic scale. We observe that under the DST a narrow, subvertical zone cuts through crust and lithosphere. First, from west to east the crustal thickness increases smoothly from 26 to 39 km, and a subhorizontal lower crustal reflector is detected east of the AF. Second, several faults exist in the upper crust in a 40 km wide zone centered on the AF, but none have kilometer-size zones of decreased seismic velocities or zones of high electrical conductivities in the upper crust expected for large damage zones. Third, the AF is the main branch of the DST system, even though it has accommodated only a part (up to 60 km) of the overall 105 km of sinistral plate motion. Fourth, the AF acts as a barrier to fluids to a depth of 4 km, and the lithology changes abruptly across it. Fifth, in the top few hundred meters of the AF a locally transpressional regime is observed in a 100-300 m wide zone of deformed and displaced material, bordered by subparallel faults forming a positive flower structure. Other segments of the AF have a transtensional character with small pull-aparts along them. The damage zones of the individual faults are only 5-20 m wide at this depth range. Sixth, two areas on the AF show mesoscale to microscale faulting and veining in limestone sequences with faulting depths between 2 and 5 km. Seventh, fluids in the AF are carried downward into the fault zone. Only a minor fraction of fluids is derived from ascending hydrothermal fluids. However, we found that on the kilometer scale the AF does not act as an important fluid conduit. Most of these findings are corroborated using thermomechanical modeling where shear deformation in the upper crust is localized in one or two major faults; at larger depth, shear deformation occurs in a 20-40 km wide zone with a mechanically weak decoupling zone extending subvertically through the entire lithosphere.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MohsenAschMechieetal.2011,
  author    = {Mohsen, Amjad and Asch, G{\"u}nter and Mechie, James and Kind, Rainer and Hofstetter, Rami and Weber, Michael H. and Stiller, M. and Abu-Ayyash, Khalil},
  title     = {Crustal structure of the Dead Sea Basin (DSB) from a receiver function analysis},
  series = {Geophysical journal international},
  volume    = {184},
  journal   = {Geophysical journal international},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell},
  address   = {Malden},
  issn      = {0956-540X},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04853.x},
  pages     = {463 -- 476},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {The Dead Sea Transform (DST) is a major left-lateral strike-slip fault that accommodates the relative motion between the African and Arabian plates, connecting a region of extension in the Red Sea to the Taurus collision zone in Turkey over a length of about 1100 km. The Dead Sea Basin (DSB) is one of the largest basins along the DST. The DSB is a morphotectonic depression along the DST, divided into a northern and a southern sub-basin, separated by the Lisan salt diapir. We report on a receiver function study of the crust within the multidisciplinary geophysical project, DEad Sea Integrated REsearch (DESIRE), to study the crustal structure of the DSB. A temporary seismic network was operated on both sides of the DSB between 2006 October and 2008 April. The aperture of the network is approximately 60 km in the E-W direction crossing the DSB on the Lisan peninsula and about 100 km in the N-S direction. Analysis of receiver functions from the DESIRE temporary network indicates that Moho depths vary between 30 and 38 km beneath the area. These Moho depth estimates are consistent with results of near-vertical incidence and wide-angle controlled-source techniques. Receiver functions reveal an additional discontinuity in the lower crust, but only in the DSB and west of it. This leads to the conclusion that the internal crustal structure east and west of the DSB is different at the present-day. However, if the 107 km left-lateral movement along the DST is taken into account, then the region beneath the DESIRE array where no lower crustal discontinuity is observed would have lain about 18 Ma ago immediately adjacent to the region under the previous DESERT array west of the DST where no lower crustal discontinuity is recognized.},
  language  = {en}
}