TRANSCURRENT FAULT ACTIVITY ON THE DEAD-SEA TRANSFORM IN LEBANON AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PLATE-TECTONICS AND SEISMIC HAZARD

Fault activity within the Lebanese transpression zone, one of the clas sic examples of restraining bend development on a continental transfor m, is here investigated using dated geomorphological features. The nor thern part of the Yammouneh Fault, commonly considered to be the princ ipal active strand on this part of the Dead Sea Transform, has been in active for the past 5 Ma, Field observations show that basalts, dated as late Pliocene in age, apparently offset by the Yammouneh fault, unc onformably overlie it, The active transcurrent structure is principall y, perhaps exclusively, the Roum Fault. The Lebanese transpressive zon e has evolved through time, with migration of fault activity. These re sults confirm the overlapping transform hypothesis for the Dead Sea sy stem, require the active triple junction between the transform and the Tethyan collision belt to lie offshore SE Cyprus, and have profound i mplications for assessing seismic hazard in the Levant.