The crustal structure of the Dead Sea Transform

To address one of the central questions of plate tectonics?How do large transform systems work and what are their typical features??seismic investigations across the Dead Sea Transform (DST), the boundary between the African and Arabian plates in the Middle East, were conducted for the first time. A major component of these investigations was a combined reflection/refraction survey across the territories of Palestine, Israel and Jordan. The main results of this study are:(1) The seismic basement is offset by 3?5 km under the DST,(2) The DST cuts through the entire crust, broadening in the lower crust,(3) Strong lower crustal reflectors are imaged only on one side of the DST,(4) The seismic velocity sections show a steady increase in the depth of the crust-mantle transition (Moho) from? 26 km at the Mediterranean to? 39 km under the Jordan highlands, with only a small but visible