Reches and Hoexter (1981) identified Event A in the central Dir Hagla trenches 3, 4, and 5, which were excavated across the Jericho fault. Disturbance in Units A1 and A2 included small faults, wide fissures, filled cracks, significant vertical throw, and large unconformities. They reported about 3.5 m of vertical throw in Unit A1 and argued that this offset was tectonic rather than depositional, because the A1 layers remained horizontally bedded, laterally continuous, and lithologically consistent across the disturbed zone, while overlying Units B and C showed eastward thickening and inclination. They further noted that the measured throw may have been amplified by "variation of the fault attitude (e.g. Eyal, 1973), fault trend (e.g. Garfunkel, this volume), or the en-echelon pattern (e.g. Freund and Garfunkel, 1976)". Reches and Hoexter (1981:245–247) interpret the large unconformity as the result of post-seismic erosion following ~3.5 m of vertical displacement, which produced a fault scarp.

Reches and Hoexter (1981) dated Event A to between 200 BCE and 200 CE using pottery sherds, specifically an assemblage from Unit A ranging from the Iron Age to the Early Roman period, with the youngest material providing the maximum age because of reworking. On that basis, and because Josephus Flavius records a destructive earthquake in 31 BCE, they suggested that Event A may correlate with the 31 BCE earthquake.

Figure 9 - Generalized sections of the main fault zone in Trench 3, with the structures that formed during past earthquakes. Two major events can be distinguished. For more details compare with Figs. 7 and 8 - click on image to open in a new tab - Reches and Hoexter (1981)