Spatial and temporal relation of submarine landslides and faults along the Israeli continental slope, eastern Mediterranean

A new study of the Israeli Mediterranean continental slope provides an understanding of the interaction between submarine landslides, fault scarps, and subsurface evaporites. Faults and landslides interact in the northern part of the studied continental slope where fault scarps rupture the seabed. In this area landslides are thought to be triggered by over-steepened fault-scarps and are observed to cover older fault scarps, or be cut by younger faults. These variable cross-cutting relationships indicate a multi-phase history in which landsliding and faulting both post-date and pre-date one another. Isopach maps of the Messinian evaporites further reveal that fault scarps are mainly found along a slope-parallel belt where the underlying salt layer is 150–500 m thick. We suggest that this rather thin sequence of the Messinian evaporites associated with faulting serves as a localized detachment zone for the overlaying strata. We argue that the multi-phase and spatially variable association of landslides and faults reveal a highly dynamic continental slope, which may be still active in the present day.