Anatomy of the Dead Sea transform: Does it reflect continuous changes in plate motion?

A new gravity map of the southern half of the Dead Sea, transform offers th e first regional view of the anatomy of this plate boundary. Interpreted to gether with auxiliary seismic and well data, the map reveals a string of su bsurface basins of widely varying size, shape, and depth along the plate bo undary and relatively short (25-55 km) and discontinuous fault segments. We argue that this structure is a result of continuous small changes in relat ive plate motion. However, several segments must have ruptured simultaneous ly to produce the inferred maximum magnitude of historical earthquakes.