Tectonic paleostress fields in the southwestern part of Jordan: New insights from the fault slip data in the southeastern flank of the Dead Sea Fault Zone

Abstract

A new approach for paleostress analysis, using the nine-dimensional space fault slip inversion method, was performed in the southeastern flank of the Jordan-Dead Sea Fault. Five major tectonic episodes with different kinematics were successfully detected from the inversion of a new fault slip data, which thereby caused reactivation of inherited crustal structures and established new ones. These episodes prevailed since Late Cretaceous times, and their chronological constraints were established essentially from the stratigraphic ages of the affected rocks and the crosscutting relationships of successive striae locally observed on the fault planes. During the Late Cretaceous to late Eocene, the area was under a compressional/strike-slip stress regime with a ~E-W trending σ1. At Oligocene, a strike-slip stress regime with NW-SE striking σ1 occurred. Both compression regimes correspond to the so-called Syrian Arc Deformation that gave rise to distinctive folds in Jordan and its surrounding areas. An extension with ~N-S to NE-SW trending σ3 followed the late Oligocene compression event and took place during Miocene time, most probably linked to the opening of the Red Sea-Suez Rift. Late Cenozoic tectonics show the occurrence of two successive compressions, NW-SE then both NE-SW and ~N-S, which generally reflect a continental collisional setting between the Arabian and Eurasian plates.