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.