Rifting-Driven Magmatism Along the Dead Sea Continental Transform Fault

A. Haddad, C. Chiarabba, M. Lazar, A. Mazzini, A. Polonia, L. Gasperini, M. Lupi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Dead Sea Fault (DSF) is a crustal-scale continental transform fault separating the African and the Arabian plates. Neogene to Quaternary volcanic activity is well-spread in Northern Israel. Yet, the origin of the magmas that fed the eruptions is still unpinned. Our local earthquake tomography depicts velocity distributions typical of rifting settings. At 9 km depth, a prominent high Vp/Vs anomaly marks the presence of cooling melts. We propose that protracted transtension along the DSF caused crustal thinning promoting the emplacement of magmatic bodies. Crustal emplacements of magmas in Northern Israel reconcile multiple observations, including the high geothermal gradient, the prominent magnetic anomalies and the traces of mantle-derived fluids in the springs across the Sea of Galilee. We provide a compelling evidence for rifting in segments of the DSF and identify the potential source of magmatism that fed part of the volcanic activity of the area.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2022GL099964
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume50
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was jointly funded by multiple institutions including the COST Action FLOWS (ES1301) that is part of the Horizon 2020 program. Data will therefore be available once published. Antoine Haddad thanks the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Geneva for salary support. Adriano Mazzini was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program grant agreement 308126 (LusiLab project, PI A. Mazzini). The authors also acknowledge the support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme (project 223272) and the HOTMUD project (number 288299). Marion Alcanie, Guy Lang and Naama Sarid are thanked for their support in the field. Instruments have been acquired in the framework of the SNF project GENERATE (PI Matteo Lupi—Project 166900). The authors acknowledge the great contribution of three reviewers who very much helped streaming and focusing this study.

Funding Information:
This work was jointly funded by multiple institutions including the COST Action FLOWS (ES1301) that is part of the Horizon 2020 program. Data will therefore be available once published. Antoine Haddad thanks the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Geneva for salary support. Adriano Mazzini was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program grant agreement 308126 (LusiLab project, PI A. Mazzini). The authors also acknowledge the support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centers of Excellence funding scheme (project 223272) and the HOTMUD project (number 288299). Marion Alcanie, Guy Lang and Naama Sarid are thanked for their support in the field. Instruments have been acquired in the framework of the SNF project GENERATE (PI Matteo Lupi—Project 166900). The authors acknowledge the great contribution of three reviewers who very much helped streaming and focusing this study.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Authors.

Keywords

  • Dead Sea Fault
  • magma
  • rifting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geophysics
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (all)

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