An-Najah Staff

Since the advent of plate-tectonics the Dead Sea Transform (DST) has been considered a prime site to examine geodynamic processes. It has accommodated a total of 105 km of left-lateral transform motion between the African and Arabian plates since early Miocene (~20 My). Large historical earthquakes on the DST with magnitudes up to 7 and the 1995 Nueiba M7.2 event, as well as ongoing micro-seismic activity show that the DST is a seismically active plate boundary. The DST therefore poses a considerable seismic hazard to Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. The DST segment between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, called Arava/Araba Fault (AF), is studied in DESERT in detail, using a multi-disciplinary and multi-scale approach from the micrometer to the plate-tectonic scale. This volume contains the results of the DESERT project running from 2000 to 2006. It opens with a review paper followed by 33 special papers. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/GFZ.b103-09084 (open access).