Tectonophysics, zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA 111 (1985) 155-162 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.. Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands 155 zyxwvutsr Letter Section Gravity anomalies across the Dead Sea rift and comparison with other rift zones ROBERT L. KOVACH and ZVI BEN-AVRAHAM* Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (U.S.A.) (Received November 7, 1983; revised version accepted October 22, 1984) ABSTRACT Kovach, R.L. and Ben-Avraham, Z., 1985. Gravity anomalies across the Dead Sea rift and comparison with other rift zones. Tectonophysics, 111: 155-162. A series of gravity profiles across the axis of the Dead Sea rift have been constructed from various sources. Comparison of these profiles with those from other continental rift zones demonstrates an interesting correlation between the sign and magnitude of the Bouguer anomaly field and the width of the rift zone. About 100 km in width is the critical distance for the Bouguer gravity anomaly to change from negative to positive, implying that at least this amount of separation must occur before denser material is able to rise beneath the rift zone and offset the negative effect produced by the shallow, but relatively thick, low-density sediments typically present in continental rift zones. 1. INTRODUCTION zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA The gravity field of the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East has been a source of interest since the early gravity measurements of Von Triulzi (1898), Curry (1913), Vening Meinesz (1934) and Lejay (1938). The region of interest is bordered by Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria on the north, Jordan on the east, and it encompasses the Dead Sea rift zone, the Gulf of Aqaba (Elat), the Sinai Peninsula and the Gulf of Suez (Fig. 1). In view of plate tectonics, the region is of particular interest in that there is a change in mode from spreading in the Red Sea to possibly spreading and shear movement in the Gulf of Suez to shear movement along the Dead Sea rift (Ben-Avraham, 1984). Several important questions can be posed for this region. (1) What is the crustal structure of the eastern Mediterranean and the adjacent land areas? (2) What is the nature of the eastern Mediterranean-continental transition zone? (3) What are the properties of the crust and upper mantle across and along the Dead Sea-Aqaba rift, a postulated leaky transform *On leave from: Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, and Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Ltd, Haifa, Israel. 0040-1951/85/$03.30 0 1985 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.