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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.
In this work, we analyse continuous measurements of microseisms to assess the reliability of the fundamental resonance frequency estimated by means of the horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratio within the 0.1-1 Hz frequency range, using short-period sensors (natural period of 1 s). We apply the H/V technique to recordings of stations installed in two alluvial basins with different sedimentary cover thicknesses-the Lower Rhine Embayment (Germany) and the Gubbio Plain (Central Italy). The spectral ratios are estimated over the time-frequency domain, and we discuss the reliability of the results considering both the variability of the microseism activity and the amplitude of the instrumental noise. We show that microseisms measured by short period sensors allow the retrieval of fundamental resonance frequencies greater than about 0.1-0.2 Hz, with this lower frequency bound depending on the relative amplitude of the microseism signal and the self-noise of the instruments. In particular, we show an example where the considered short-period sensor is connected to instruments characterized by an instrumental noise level which allows detecting only fundamental frequencies greater than about 0.4 Hz. Since the frequency at which the peak of the H/V spectral ratio is biased depends upon the seismic signal-to-instrument noise ratio, the power spectral amplitude of instrumental self- noise should be always considered when interpreting the frequency of the peak as the fundamental resonance frequency of the investigated site.