Plate Tectonics
Located in west-central Jordan, the Karak Plateau is largely the product of both past and present tectonic forces. The Plateau was created through nearly 2 km of uplift during the Miocene along the boundary between Sinai microplate and the Arabian plate. Today the Plateau is an uplifted, gently rolling, eastwardly sloped plain along the displacement zone (i.e., Dead Sea Rift Valley) between the plates. The Dead Sea Rift Valley extends nearly 6,000 km from Turkey to East Africa and continues to be tectonically active.
This figure was produced by draping a high-resolution (Landsat-7, 15-meter) panchromatic image over a digital elevation model (DEM) dataset. The view is from the perspective of approximately 3,000 meters above the Wādī 'Araba (part of the Dead Sea Rift Valley), while looking northward towards the Dead Sea (seen in the background). The Karak Plateau stands at the top of the Dead Sea escarpment immediately to the east (i.e., right in this image) of the Dead Sea.
Dead Sea Rift
Though many fault zones and fractures on the Plateau serve as visible reminders of its dynamic past, the Fajj al-`Usaykir, which is part of the Karak-Wādī el Fiha fault zone is the most dramatic, extending 300 km from Karak to Saudi Arabia. Even in this land-based photograph looking southeastward from Karak, the underlying fault zone is apparent in the Fajj al-`Usaykir.
Fajj al-Usaykir
Through the integration of satellite imagery with topographic relief exaggerated using a digital elevation model (DEM), the "Fajj" fault zone stands out in dramatic contrast to the surrounding landscape.
Fajj fault zone
Another, more subtle group of tectonic features are created by the compression of underlying rocks. On the surface these areas appear as either valleys (synclines) or ridges (anticlines). The figure to the left shows a syncline and adjacent anticlines near Muta. The syncline appears as a slight trough-like depression (indicated by the red line) extending eastward from near Muta into the loess plains of the central plateau. The adjacent anticlines form slight ridges (indicated by the blue lines) running parallel to the syncline. Draping an ASTER 15 m resolution image over a DEM and exaggerating the topography seven times produced the image. By doing so, these otherwise unnoticed features become visible.
Muta syncline and anticline