Jordan Valley (Middle East)
The Jordan Valley is running in a north-south direction grave breach of the Arabian plate, in which the Jordan flows.
He is in the range of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, the northern part of the Great African grave breach ( Great Rift Valley) and is home to the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, which are connected by the Jordan. In the south of the trench across the Gulf of Aqaba continues an arm of the Red Sea, the Red Sea itself and East Africa in the East African rift to Mozambique in Southeast Africa.
The surface of the Dead Sea is 420 meters below sea level. At the bottom of the Dead Sea to the Jordan Rift Valley extends to 794 m below sea level. The grave breach ranges starting below the local sediments much further into the earth's crust into it.
Seismic History
The seismic activity of this region is known as the earthquake historically most documented going back. A total of 30 earthquakes with significant damage are known for the past 2,200 years available. With the known written work for a period of about 4000 years is a total covered. Both the Old Testament Bible, as well as Roman sources fix this variety of observations that are broadly comparable to what could be registered in recent times. Any further geological research provided clear evidence for an extended period of about 10,000 years.
The turmoil that has occurred time and again produced landslides that for a short time the Jordan - about 1-2 days - were staying. For the last 1000 years, six such events with date are documented and at least another such event in biblical times. Especially with the earthquake in 1546, there was not only a spillage of Jordan but also to a spring tide ( Tsunami ) in the region of the Red Sea. In other quake itself strong fortress walls knocked down ( Jericho, Massada ) or important tanks were destroyed, so that the affected cities had to leave some for decades. The shifts in the earth's crust led elsewhere continue to cause spontaneous groundwater aquifers came to the surface and thereby created at least temporarily, new sources.
The central event of modern times is considered so far the earthquake of 1927, in which the western plate has shifted to the south and the eastern plate to the north within a short time of about 50 cm from each other. This incontestably the oldest reports from the region. Research assumes an approximate displacement of 50 cm to 1 m in 100 years.