Mapping and Analyzing the Volcano-Petrology and Tectono-Seismicity Characteristics Along the Syrian Rift – NW the Arabian Plate - Advances in Data, Methods, Models and Their Applications in Geoscience - page 141

Aurasia-Arabia, as well as the Anatolian fault at the north-west end of the Arabian
plate(Cetin et al.2003).
- Divergent: the oceanic rifts (Arabia-Nubia), and the Aden gulf (Arabia-Somalia), (Fig.1,
C, D),(Bosworth et al.2005)
- Transform: the senester faults of the Levant (Arabia-Nubia), to the West and the Dexter
faults of Owen (Arabia-India),to the East (Barrier et al.2004).
The territory of syria corresponds to the NW corner of the Arabian plate. It is bordered by
the Zagros Taurus collision zone, to the North, and the oceanic expansion zone, to the South.
In the Western part of Syria, the rift structure, which corresponds to the northern part of the
Dead Sea Fault Zone(DSFZ), is named the Levant fault, in continuity with the Red Sea rift
zone.
3. Interplate volcanism along the Syrian rift
The Syrian rift is marked by an active interplate volcanism, occurring from Jurassic to
present (Ponikarov 1967, Laws and Wilson 1997, Giannerini et al.1998). Volcanoes bring to
the surface a number of mantle xenoliths, which provide essential information on the nature
and composition of the underlying lithospheric mantle (Stein and Hofman 1992, Stein et al
1993, Sharkov et al.1993, Bilal and Touret 2001, Bilal and Sheleh 2004). Most important data
are summarized below:
3.1 Volcanism
The occurrence of volcanic activity in its geotectonic context shows that this activity covers
an important part of the surface of the Arabian plate: in Syria; in Jordan; and in Saudi
Arabia (Fig.2). This volcanism covers the Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, but the major
eruption is recent. It is distributed over three distinct regions (Mor 1993): (1) the Harrat Ash
Shaam plateau; (2) the region from the Homs basalts to the Karasu valley; (3) the Arabian
platform and the Southern part of the Bitlis belt (e.g.karacadage volcano).
The Harrat Ash Shaam basalt eruption occurred in three episodes: at 26-22 Ma.;18-
13Ma.;and 7to <0,5Ma.(Mor 1993, Ilani et al 2001).The Homs basalts are dated at 6,5-
2,0Ma.(Mouty et al.1992,Sharkovet al.1994,1998,Butler et al.1997, Butler and Spencer 1999).In
the Ghab basin area and east of it ,the age ranges from 2.0 to 1,1 Ma (Heiman et al 1998). In
the Karasu valley and vicinity, the age vary from 1, 6 to 0, 05 Ma. (Capan et al.1987,Heiman
et al.1998, Rojay et al 2001,Yurtmen et al 2002).
Summarizing, volcanism in Syria, started during Lias with magmatism associated to the
ophiolites in the north of the territory (in the Baer et Bassit region),at the same time of
volcanism in the southern of Turkey (Antalya et Hatay ),or in the Mamonia complex in
Cyprus (Robertson et al.1991).This volcanism is related to subvertical tension fractures
caused by transcurent movement along the Syrian part (the Syrian rift)of the Dead Sea Fault
Zone(DSFZ).It can be hypothetized that these fractures induced adiabatic partial melting in
the lithosphere (Polat et al.1997,Adiyaman and Chorowwicz 2002,Chorowicz et al.2005).
The volcanic emission extends over about 10% of the whole surface area of Syria (Fig.
3).Volcanism is related to the movement of the Arabian plate towards the Eurasian plate, at
a velocity of 18±2mma -1 , in a NNW direction (McClusky et al2000). Eruptions, flooding
cover significant areas, where the Cenozoic basaltic lavas may be up to 500 M thick and are
covered by Tertiary and Quaternary sediments (Al Mishwat and Nasir 2004).