Die folgende Arbeit ist Teil des multidisziplinären Projektes DESERT (DEad SEa Rift Transect), welches seit dem Jahr 2000 im Nahen Osten durchgeführt wird. Dabei geht es primär um die Struktur der südlichen Dead Sea Transform (DST; Tote-Meer-Transformstörung), Plattengrenze zwischen Afrika (Sinai) und der Arabischen Mikroplatte. Seit dem Miozän beträgt der sinistrale Versatz an dieser bedeutenden aktiven Blattverschiebung mehr als 100 km. Das steilwinkelseismische (NVR) Experiment von DESERT querte die DST im Arava Tal zwischen Rotem Meer und Totem Meer, wo die Hauptstörung auch Arava Fault genannt wird. Das 100 km lange Profil erstreckte sich von Sede Boqer/Israel im Nordwesten nach Ma'an/Jordanien im Südosten und fällt mit dem zentralen Teil einer weitwinkelseismischen Profillinie zusammen. <br><br> Steilwinkelseismische Messungen stellen bei der Bestimmung der Krustenstruktur bis zur Krusten/Mantel-Grenze ein wichtiges Instrument dar. Obwohl es kaum möglich ist, steilstehende Störungszonen direkt abzubilden, geben abrupte Veränderungen des Reflektivitätsmuster oder plötzlich endende Reflektoren indirekte Hinweise auf Transformbewegung. Da bis zum DESERT Experiment keine anderen reflexionsseismischen Messungen über die DST ausgeführt worden waren, waren wichtige Aspekte dieser Transform-Plattengrenze und der damit verbundenen Krustenstruktur nicht bekannt. Mit dem Projekt sollte deshalb untersucht werden, wie sich die DST sowohl in der oberen als auch in der unteren Kruste manifestiert. Zu den Fragestellungen gehörte unter anderem, ob sich die DST bis in den Mantel fortsetzt und ob ein Versatz der Krusten/Mantel-Grenze beobachtet werden kann. So ein Versatz ist von anderen großen Transformstörungen bekannt. <br><br> In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden zunächst die Methode der Steilwinkelseismik und die Datenverarbeitung kurz erläutert, bevor die Daten geologisch interpretiert werden. Bei der Interpetation werden die Ergebnisse anderer relevanter Studien berücksichtigt. Geologische Geländearbeiten im Gebiet des NVR Profiles ergaben, dass die Arava Fault zum Teil charakterisiert ist durch niedrige Steilstufen in den neogenen Sedimenten, durch kleine Druckrücken oder Rhomb-Gräben. Ein typischer Aufbau der Störungszone mit einem Störungskern, einer störungsbezogenen Deformationszone und einem undeformierten Ausgangsgestein, wie er von anderen großen Störungszonen beschrieben worden ist, konnte nicht gefunden werden. Deshalb wurden zur Ergänzung der Reflexionsseismik, welche vor allem die tieferen Krustenstrukturen abbildet, ASTER (Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) Satellitendaten herangezogen, um oberflächennahe Deformation und neotektonische Aktivität zu bestimmen. / Following work is embedded in the multidisciplinary study DESERT (DEad SEa Rift Transect) that has been carried out in the Middle East since the beginning of the year 2000. It focuses on the structure of the southern Dead Sea Transform (DST), the transform plate boundary between Africa (Sinai) and the Arabian microplate. The left-lateral displacement along this major active strike-slip fault amounts to more than 100 km since Miocene times. The DESERT near-vertical seismic reflection (NVR) experiment crossed the DST in the Arava Valley between Red Sea and Dead Sea, where its main fault is called Arava Fault. The 100 km long profile extends in a NW&mdash;SE direction from Sede Boqer/Israel to Ma'an/Jordan and coincides with the central part of a wide-angle seismic refraction/reflection line. <br><br> Near-vertical seismic reflection studies are powerful tools to study the crustal architecture down to the crust/mantle boundary. Although they cannot directly image steeply dipping fault zones, they can give indirect evidence for transform motion by offset reflectors or an abrupt change in reflectivity pattern. Since no seismic reflection profile had crossed the DST before DESERT, important aspects of this transform plate boundary and related crustal structures were not known. Thus this study aimed to resolve the DST's manifestation in both the upper and the lower crust. It was to show, whether the DST penetrates into the mantle and whether it is associated with an offset of the crust/mantle boundary, which is observed at other large strike-slip zones. <br><br> In this work a short description of the seismic reflection method and the various processing steps is followed by a geological interpretation of the seismic data, taking into account relevant information from other studies. Geological investigations in the area of the NVR profile showed, that the Arava Fault can partly be recognized in the field by small scarps in the Neogene sediments, small pressure ridges or rhomb-shaped grabens. A typical fault zone architecture with a fault gauge, fault-related damage zone, and undeformed host rock, that has been reported from other large fault zones, could not be found. Therefore, as a complementary part to the NVR experiment, which was designed to resolve deeper crustal structures, ASTER (Advanced Spacebourne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite images were used to analyze surface deformation and determine neotectonic activity.

At the northern extent of the Cascadia subduction zone, the subducting Explorer and Juan de Fuca plates interact across a translational deformation zone, known as the Nootka fault zone. The Seafloor Earthquake Array Japan-Canada Cascadia Experiment (SeaJade) was designed to study this region. In two parts (SeaJade I and II, deployed from July – September 2010 and January – September 2014), seismic data from the SeaJade project has led to several important discoveries. Hypocenter distributions from SeaJade I and II indicate primary and secondary conjugate faults within the Nootka fault zone. Converted phase analysis and jointly determined seismic tomography with double-difference relocated hypocenters provide evidence to several velocity-contrasting interfaces seaward of the Cascadia subduction front at depths of ~4-6 km, ~6-9 km, ~11-14 km, and ~14-18 km, which have been interpreted as the top of the oceanic crust, upper/lower crust boundary, oceanic Moho, and the base of the highly fractured and seawater/mineral enriched veins within oceanic mantle. During SeaJade II, a MW 6.4 mainshock and subsequent aftershocks, known as the Nootka Sequence, highlighted a previously unidentified fault within the subducted Explorer plate. This fault reflects the geometry of the subducting plate, showing downward bending of the plate toward the northwest. This plate bend can be attributed to negative buoyancy from margin parallel mantle flow induced by intraslab tearing further northwest. Seismic tomography reinforces the conclusions drawn from the Nootka Sequence hypocenter distribution. Earthquakes from the entire SeaJade II catalogue reveal possible rotated paleo-faults, identifying the former extent of the Nootka fault zone from ~3.5 Ma. / Graduate

Geologic mapping in the Phil Pico Mountain quadrangle and analysis of the Carter Oil Company Carson Peak Unit 1 well have provided additional constraints on the erosional and uplift history of this section of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains. Phil Pico Mountain is largely composed of the conglomeratic facies of the early Eocene Wasatch and middle to late Eocene Bridger Formations. These formations are separated by the Henrys Fork fault which has thrust Wasatch Formation next to Bridger Formation. The Wasatch Formation is clearly synorogenic and contains an unroofing succession from the adjacent Uinta Mountains. On Phil Pico Mountain, the Wasatch Formation contains clasts eroded sequentially from the Permian Park City Formation, Permian Pennsylvanian Weber Sandstone, Pennsylvanian Morgan Formation, and the Pennsylvanian Round Valley and Mississippian Madison Limestones. Renewed uplift in the middle and late Eocene led to the erosion of Wasatch Formation and its redeposition as Bridger Formation on the down-thrown footwall of the Henrys Fork fault. Field observations and analysis of the cuttings and lithology log from Carson Peak Unit 1 well suggest that initial uplift along the Henrys Fork Fault occurred in the late early or early middle Eocene with the most active periods of uplift in the middle and late Eocene (Figure 8, Figure 24, Appendix 1). The approximate post-Paleocene throw of the Henrys Fork fault at Phil Pico Mountain is 2070 m (6800 ft). The Carson Peak Unit 1 well also reveals that just north of the Henrys Fork fault at Phil Pico Mountain the Bridger Formation (middle to late Eocene) is 520 m (1710 ft) thick; an additional 460 m (1500 ft) of Bridger Formation lies above the well on Phil Pico Mountain. Beneath the Bridger Formation are 400 m (1180 ft) of Green River Formation (early to middle Eocene), 1520 m (5010 ft) of Wasatch Formation (early Eocene), and 850 m (2800 ft) of the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene). Stratigraphic data from three sections located east to west across the Phil Pico Mountain quadrangle show that the Protero-zoic Red Pine Shale has substantially more sandstone and less shale in the eastern section of the quadrangle. Field observations suggest that the Red Pine Shale undergoes a facies change across the quadrangle. However, due to the lack of continuous stratigraphic exposures, the cause of this change is not known.