Translocated plio-pleistocene drainage systems along the Arava fault of the Dead Sea transform

Geomorphic and sedimentologic field studies and analyses of LANDSAT 5 images and topographic maps indicate 15 km of left-lateral displacement of a Pliocene large stream and alluvial fans along the Dead Sea transform in southern Israel and Jordan. In the central Arava valley, a rift valley located along the transform, there is a notable discrepancy between the number and location of the feeding drainage basins within the eastern margins of the Arava valley and those of the alluvial fans and the cross-rift large stream. A few of these large alluvial fans lack any feeding drainage basin. Furthermore, east of the large stream there is no drainage basin that could have fed it. These discrepancies between the physiography, locations, sizes, and lithological compositions of the feeding drainage basins and of the alluvial fans can be explained by 15 km of left-lateral movement since the Late Pliocene or the Early Pleistocene along the Arava-Dead Sea segment of the transform. This is one of the largest displacements of a landform and surficial alluvial deposit in the world. However, the resulting average long-term rate of movement is relatively small (0.3-0.75 cm/year). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.