Multinational geoscientific research effort kicks off in the Middle East

Abstract

The Dead Sea Rift Transect (DESERT 2000) is a multinational and interdisciplinary study of the Dead Sea Rift. The project began fieldwork in February 2000 and the first experiments were successfully completed in May. The seismic, seismological, and magnetotelluric experiments presented here, along with the future electromagnetic, gravity, magnetic, geodynamic, and geological studies, will provide the basic geophysical and geodynamic frame for further geoscientific research. DESERT 2000 should also help address a fundamental question of plate tectonics: How do shear zones work and what controls them?