Multinational Geoscientific Research Effort Kicks Off in the Middle East
The Dead Sea Rift Transect (DESERT 2000)
is a multinational and interdisciplinary study
of the Dead Sea Rift.
The project began fieldwork in February
2000 and the first experiments were successfully
completed in May The seismic, seismological,and
magnetotelluric experiments
presented here, along with the future electromagnetic,
gravity, magnetic, geodynamic, and
geological studies, will provide the basic geophysical
and geodynamic frame for further
geoscientific research. DESERT 2000 should
also help address a fundamental question of
plate tectonics: How do shear zones work and
what controls them?