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Strike
-Slip to Dip-Slip
Strain Transfer in an Actively Subsiding Pullapart Basin along the Dead
Sea Transform, Aqaba, Jordan
One of the main types of structural traps
which hosts ore deposits, groundwater, or oil and gas accumulations, is
the en echelon structures of strike-slip faults. Understanding the stepover
process and the transfer of strain from strike-slip to dip-slip faults
is critical to understanding how pullapart basins form. This proposal seeks
funds to conduct field research along part of the Dead Sea Transform (DST)
where a major strike-slip fault terminates and strain is accommodated on
four oblique-slip faults. The DST plate boundary, marked by rhomb-shaped
grabens and en echelon strike-slip faults, formed when the Arabo-African
plate broke up in the Miocene, resulting in a cumulative sinistral displacement
of about 105 km. The goal of this research is to study in detail the structural
relationship of the Wadi Araba fault to oblique-slip and normal faults
in Aqaba, Jordan in order to model the neotectonic deformation history
of an active, pullapart basin. These faults cut the Quaternary stratigraphic
section at the north end of the Gulf of Aqaba (Elat). This research will
involve: 1) interpretation of aerial photographs currently available at
UMKC, 2) bulldozer excavation and mapping of the fault exposures, 3) collection
of structural orientation data, and 4) kinematic and dynamic analyses of
fault data.
The study will help determine the degree to which
adjacent blocks either converge or diverge during the strike
-slip movement
as well as the magnitude of the displacement. This doctoral research will
offer some preliminary conclusions regarding the structural pattern and
the growth of an actively subsiding pullapart basin.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90925©1999 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid