Publications

The Dead Sea Rift has been considered since a long time as one of the world’s most unique geological sites. Until today the mechanisms that drive the transform fault generating the Dead Sea Rift and its valley are not fully understood. Some of the few established facts are that the fault extends down to the upper mantle and that the offset generated by the transform is longer than 100 km. Within this rift large extensional basins were formed with the Dead Sea or Lake of Galilee being the most prominent representatives. In order to gain more insight into the geophysical and geological structures of the Dead Sea Rift five scientific groups formed the DESIRE project: plate movement observed by GPS, crustal structure revealed by seismics and magnetotellurics, seismology and radon observed by networks, geodynamic modelling using the inputs of all other groups. The fifth group performed a helicopter-borne gravity survey over the Israelian and Jordanian sides of the Dead Sea Rift extending between Aqaba and Jericho. The helicopter used for the survey was a Sikorsky S-76B operated by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and National Resources. The gravity meter of the type GT-1A was leased from Canadian MicroGravity. The survey was performed in close collaboration with the Geophysical Institute of Israel, the Natural Resources Agency of Jordan and the corresponding Air Forces in Israel and Jordan. The resulting gravimetric data set is still of preliminary nature but already reveals the nature of the Dead Rift System. It will be used for forward modelling of the Dead Sea Rifts gravimetric structure and for reference in the geodynamic modelling. The data might also be used for enhancing the regional geoid over the Dead Sea Rift and to tackle methodical questions as how to handle the gravimetric compensation of a valley 400 m beyond sea level.

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Meyer, U.; Heyde, I.; Köhler, C.; Götze, H.-J.; Choi, S. (2008): DESIRE – Dead Sea Rift Integrated Research Project: A multidisciplinary geo-scientific project to reveal the structure of the Dead Sea Rift utilizing helicopter-borne gravimetry. IAG International Symposium on Gravity, Geoid and Earth Observation (Chania, Greece 2008).