Event CH4-E2 - Modeled Age 269-329 CE
At the
deltaic site of Bet Zeyda (aka Beteiha), just north of the
Sea of Galilee (aka Lake Kinneret),
three-dimensional paleoseismic investigations
were conducted by multiple researchers over a number
of years using numerous trenches. The studies
examined a series of ~E–W-oriented
paleo-channels intersected and
sinistrally displaced by the ~N–S-trending
active Jordan Gorge Fault, producing a detailed
chronology of fault activity over roughly the past
2,000 years, based on
radiocarbon dating of
detrital charcoal. Once outliers are
excluded, this material appears to have a
residence time of decades rather than
centuries (e.g. see
Marco et al., 2005:200). Results indicate that
seismic events were more frequent and produced
greater fault slip during the first millennium CE
than in the second, suggesting the region may be
approaching another period of heightened seismic
activity.
Wechsler et al. (2014:9) identified six
earthquakes in paleo-channel 4 (CH4).
Wechsler et al. (2018:216) add that channel 4
crossed the fault in an area where a long, linear,
and narrow
pressure ridge is interpreted to have
produced localized uplift east of the main fault,
while subsidence to the west caused sediment
thickening.
Wechsler et al. (2014:14) report that evidence for CH4-E2 was
"weaker than that of some events", manifested by
"several small faults terminating at the top of
unit 430, and capped by unit 429" and some
synclinal fold
growth. They interpreted the event horizon as
between units 429 and 430 and characterized it
as an event "that exhibits relatively minor
overall deformation".
Wechsler et al. (2018:Table 3) estimated
that Events CH4-E2 and CH4-E1 combined to produce
2.7 m of offset.
Wechsler et al. (2018:219) suggest that it is
"likely both are moderate in size, each with
about 1.3 m of
horizontal slip."
