Coseismic displacements along the Serghaya fault: an active branch of the Dead Sea Fault System in Syria and Lebanon

Examination of the Serghaya fault, a branch of the Dead Sea Fault System in western Syria and eastern Lebanon, documents Late Quaternary and Recent le ft-lateral fault movements including the probable remnant of a historic cos eismic surface rupture. Carbon-14 dating and the presence of fault-scarp fr ee faces in soft, late Pleistocene lake deposits suggest coseismic slip dur ing the past two Or three centuries, possibly corresponding with one of the well-documented earthquakes of 1705 or 1759, With an estimated Holocene sl ip rate of 1-2 mm a(-1), the Serghaya Fault accommodates a significant part of the active deformation along the Arabian-African plate boundary:, These results suggest that multiple active fault branches are involved in the tr ansfer of strain through the 'Lebanese' restraining bend.