Deformation along the margins of the Dead Sea Transform: The Yehudiyya Block, Golan Heights

The Yehudiyya Block (YB) is located in the western part of the Golan Heights, along the eastern margins of the Dead Sea Transform. The block, covered by basalt, is part of the unfaulted plateau of the Golan Heights and dips to the southwest towards the Beteiha Valley and the shores of the Sea of Galilee. A set of NNW-trending normal faults traverses the YB and dissects the basalt. K-Ar dating and paleomagnetic analysis were applied to examine the history of faulting in the YB. Thirty-three basalt flows from five locations were sampled for paleomagnetic analysis, and eight samples were sampled for K-Ar age dating. The age of the basalt ranges between 2.19 ± 0.06 and 0.41 ± 0.24 Ma. The mean measured declination and inclination in the YB are 0.6° ± 5.2° and 46.4° ± 4.6°, respectively. This indicates that deformation was not accompanied by block rotation. It is suggested that tilting of the entire YB and faulting within the block occurred in response to a major subsidence event in the adjacent Kinnarot Basin that commenced approximately 1 m.y. ago. Faulting has caused a maximum extension of 0.6% to 1.3% in a NNE-SSW direction.