Salt diapir movements using SAR interferometry in the Lisan Peninsula, Dead Sea rift

A several kilometres thick sequence of mostly marine salt with inter-bedded gypsum, shale and dolomite rock of Pliocene to Pleistocene age build several salt diapirs in the Dead Sea area. The Lisan Peninsula salt diapir is elongated in the N-S direction, and includes several sub-domes and a structural depression. Differential interferograms were generated for several time intervals of seven to ninety three months between 1992 and 1999 and show a large diversity of uplift and subsidence features in the peninsula. The uplift rate, which has been measured, is in correspondence to the geological rate evaluated by other geological researches. The subsidence, mainly in the south dome and the cape are much more significant. Inversion deformation in the cape between the year 1995-1996 suggested to be linked to the 22 November 1995 Nuweiba earthquake. This paper suggested a tectonic mechanism connecting the salt deformation in the Lisan Peninsula with the activity of Boqeq fault.