This study was based on 4 paleoseismic trenches, 4 archeoseismic excavations, and 6 tufa cores taken from the aqueduct walls
at a site close to Masyaf, Syria where the al-Harif Roman aqueduct
crosses the north-trending ~90 km. long Missyaf fault segment. Displacement of the aqueduct
revealed 13.6 ± 0.2 m of left-lateral offset since the aqueduct was first built.
The date of initial construction of the aqueduct is not known any more precisely than that it was constructed during Roman times. It is therefore
younger than 65 BCE. Two reconstruction and repair episodes were identified.
Event | Date |
---|---|
1st | 1st-6th century CE |
2nd | 7th-8th century CE |
Event | Younger than | Older than |
---|---|---|
1st | 70-230 CE | 410-600 CE |
2nd | 540-980 CE | 770-940 CE |
probablyended sometime after 900-1160 CE indicating
the final stoppage of water flow over the aqueduct.
Event | Younger than | Older than | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Z | 960-1060 CE | 1480–1800, 1510–1670, and 1030–1260 CE | Trenches A and C likely due to 1170 CE earthquake |
Y | 540-650 CE | 650-810 CE | Trenches A and C |
X | 350 BCE - 30 CE | 650-810 CE | Trench A |
W | 3400-300 BCE | 800-510 BCE | Trench C |
Event | Date | Comments |
---|---|---|
Z | 1010-1210 CE | likely due to 1170 CE earthquake |
Y | 625-690 CE | |
X | 160-510 CE | |
W | 2300-500 BCE |
Description | Image | Source | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
Map showing site |
![]() ![]() The 90-km-long Missyaf fault segment and the Al Harif Roman aqueduct site. The back-ground topography (SRTM 30 arc posting digital elevation model; Farr and Kobrick, 2000) clearly delineates the fault segment (arrowheads) in between the Ghab and Al Boqueaa pull-apart basins. The Roman aqueduct at Al Harif (see also Fig. 4) was designed to bring freshwater from western ranges to Apamea and Shaizar. LRB — Lebanese restraining bend. Sbeinati et al (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 3 |
Google Earth View of Site | Google Earth | Figure 3 | |
Plan View of site |
![]() ![]() Microtopographic survey (0.05 m contour lines) of the Al-Harif aqueduct and related flat alluvial terrace. The aqueduct (thin blue crosses) shows a total of 13.6 ± 0.20 m left-lateral slip along the fault zone (Meghraoui et al., 2003). Roman numbers indicate archaeoseismic excavations (in red-dish and orange, labeled 1 to IV) Letters indicate paleoseismic trenches (in gray and black, labeled A, B, C, and E). The dragged wall fragment is located between excavation IV and trench E and is marked by a dense cluster of survey points. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 5 |
Schematic of Aqueduct Faulting History |
![]() ![]() Schematic reconstruction (with final stage from Fig. 5) of the A.D. 160-510, A.D. 625-690, and A.D. 1170 large earthquakes and related faulting of the Al Harif aqueduct. Except for the A.D. 1170 earthquake (see historical cata-logue of Sbeinati et al., 2005), the dating of earthquake events are from Figure 12. The white small section is the rebuilt wall after event X (see buried wall A and B in Fig. 8B); the subsequent gray piece corresponds to the rebuilt wall after event Y (see wall section C in Fig. 8B), which was damaged and dragged after event Z. The earlier aqueduct deformation (warping of the eastern wall near the fault rupture) may have recorded —4.3 m of coseismic left-lateral slip that remained relatively well preserved during the subsequent fault movements. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 14 |
Trench A Log - N Wall |
![]() ![]() Trench logs A, B, and C north of the aqueduct site (see location in Fig. 5). All trenches display the Dead Sea fault zone as a negative flower structure affecting all alluvial units below unit a. Calibrated 14C dates are in Table 1. Fault branches in trench C are labeled 1 to V (see text for explanation). The sedimentary units are very comparable and show three to four faulting events denoted W to Z (see text for explanation). Trench log A is in meters. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 10 A |
Trench B Log - S Wall |
![]() ![]() Trench logs A, B, and C north of the aqueduct site (see location in Fig. 5). All trenches display the Dead Sea fault zone as a negative flower structure affecting all alluvial units below unit a. Calibrated 14C dates are in Table 1. Fault branches in trench C are labeled 1 to V (see text for explanation). The sedimentary units are very comparable and show three to four faulting events denoted W to Z (see text for explanation). Trench log A is in meters. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 10B |
Trench C Log - S Wall |
![]() ![]() Trench logs A, B, and C north of the aqueduct site (see location in Fig. 5). All trenches display the Dead Sea fault zone as a negative flower structure affecting all alluvial units below unit a. Calibrated 14C dates are in Table 1. Fault branches in trench C are labeled 1 to V (see text for explanation). The sedimentary units are very comparable and show three to four faulting events denoted W to Z (see text for explanation). Trench log A is in meters. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 10C |
Lithology Legend for Trench Logs |
![]() ![]() Trench logs A, B, and C north of the aqueduct site (see location in Fig. 5). All trenches display the Dead Sea fault zone as a negative flower structure affecting all alluvial units below unit a. Calibrated 14C dates are in Table 1. Fault branches in trench C are labeled 1 to V (see text for explanation). The sedimentary units are very comparable and show three to four faulting events denoted W to Z (see text for explanation). Trench log A is in meters. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 10 |
Age Model |
![]() ![]() Calibrated dating of samples (with calibration curve INTCAL04 from Reimer et al. [2004] with 2σ age range and 95.4% probability) and sequential distribution from Oxcal pro-gram (see also Table 1; Bronk Ramsey, 2001). The Bayesian distribution computes the time range of large earthquakes (events W, X, Y, and Z) at the Al Harif aqueduct according to faulting events, construction and repair of walls, and starts and interruptions of the tufa deposits (see text for explanation). Number in brackets (in %) indicates how much the sample is in sequence; the number in % indicates an agreement index of overlap with prior distribution. Sbeinati et al (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 12 A |
Age Model - Big |
![]() ![]() Calibrated dating of samples (with calibration curve INTCAL04 from Reimer et al. [2004] with 2σ age range and 95.4% probability) and sequential distribution from Oxcal pro-gram (see also Table 1; Bronk Ramsey, 2001). The Bayesian distribution computes the time range of large earthquakes (events W, X, Y, and Z) at the Al Harif aqueduct according to faulting events, construction and repair of walls, and starts and interruptions of the tufa deposits (see text for explanation). Number in brackets (in %) indicates how much the sample is in sequence; the number in % indicates an agreement index of overlap with prior distribution. Sbeinati et al (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 12 A |
Aqueduct Wall and Tufa Cores |
![]() ![]() Schematic sections of the aqueduct western wall and related tufa deposits (B, C, D, and E indicate earlier core sections of tufa deposits (Meghraoui et al., 2003). Tufa samples AQ-Tr-B13 and AQ-Tr-D5 (Table 1) are from cores B and D, respectively. The right and left vertical sections show the relative tufa thickness of the originally built part (with Opus caementum and quadratum stones) and the rebuilt part, respectively. The plan view indicates the variation of tufa deposition and shows the core distribution and related thickness along the western wall of the aqueduct. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 7 |
Tufa Cores |
![]() ![]() Synthetic description of cores with lithologic content and sample number for radiocarbon dating (see Table 1 and Fig. 6 for core locations) I stands for major interruption. The very porous tufa indicates major interruptions in tufa growth (e.g. a major interruption of core growth in BR-3 is visible at —22 cm (Br-3-4 sample; see text for explanation). The correlation between major interruptions of tufa growth and faulting events in trenches and archaeoseismic building constrains the timing of repeated earthquakes along the Missyaf segment of the Dead Sea fault. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 11 |
Archeological Evidence of aqueduct rebuilding |
![]() ![]() Excavations II (A) and III (B) that expose the aqueduct wall foundation (see also Fig. 5) and related sedimentary unit e underneath. The difference in the size of stones between excavation II (A) and excavation III (B) implies a rebuilding phase of the latter wall. Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 9 |
Mosaic of Excavation 1 |
![]() ![]() (B) Mosaic of excavation 1 exhibits the main fallen wall (A and B) and dragged wall piece (C), scattered wall pieces and the fault zone; note also location of cement sample CS-1-4 (see text for explanation). (C) Trench E (excavation 1, north wall) exposes faulted sedimentary units below the archaeological remains and wall fragment C visible in bottom of Figure 8B fz-fault zone sedimentary units are similar to those of trenches A, B, and C (see also Fig. 10); and dating characteristics are in Table 1.
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) |
Sbeinati et. al. (2010) | Figure 8 b and c |
Strike-Slip Fault Displacement -
Wells and Coppersmith (1994)
Variable | Input | Units | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
cm. | Strike-Slip displacement | ||
cm. | Strike-Slip displacement | ||
Variable | Output - not considering a Site Effect | Units | Notes |
unitless | Moment Magnitude for Avg. Displacement | ||
unitless | Moment Magnitude for Max. Displacement |
Meghraoui, M., Gomez, F., Sbeinati, R., Van der Woerd, J., Mouty, M., Darkal, A., Radwan, Y;, Layyous, I., Najjar, H., M., Darawcheh, R., Hijazi, F.,
Al-Ghazzi, R. and Barazangi, M. (2003). "Evidence for 830 years of seismic quiescence from paleoseismology, archeoseismology and historical
seismicity along the Dead Sea fault in Syria." Earth. Planet. Sci. Letters 210: 35-52.
Sbeinati, M. R., et al. (2010). "Timing of earthquake ruptures at the Al Harif Roman aqueduct
(Dead Sea fault, Syria) from archaeoseismology and paleoseismology." Geological Society of America Special Papers 471: 243-267.