Résumé
The recurrence of large and destructive earthquakes along major fault systems is key to understanding their driving mechanism and to infer future behaviour. For the Jordan Valley segment (JVF) of the approximately 1000-km-long Dead Sea Fault, we provide evidence of episodic behaviour. We combine published historical data, re-appraised archaeological data and original geomorphic analyses and paleoseismic excavations to reveal the behaviour of the fault over the past 50 kyr, with an unprecedented high resolution of the rupture history for the past 14 kyr. Our results indicate a long term average slip-rate of 5 mm/yr, with short-term rate varying between 3.5 and 11 mm/yr. We also document the occurrence of up to 14 Mw > 7 earthquakes along the Jordan Valley segment of the DST during the Holocene. In that the JVF has accumulated 3.5m to 5 m of slip since the most recent major surface rupture in AD 1033 earthquake, we propose that the JV segment may be mature for a large event.