Simplified structural map of SW Lebanon

Plateau map Zahrani Litani beaufort hula marjview Jarmaq Plateau view

STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATATION OVERLAIN ON DEM

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GEOMORPHOLOGY AND FAULTS

This simplified map of SW Lebanon shows the main fault strands. You can visit various sites to see how these structures relate to the landscape.
The Tyre-Nabatiye plateau owes its origin to a coastal surface of Miocene age that has subsequently been uplifted to its present elevation (up to 500m above sea level). The plateau has been incised by rivers as the uplift continued - but the sinuosity of the river courses suggests that they originally ran across the old coastal plain. If you look at the DEM you be able to identify old courses - now abandoned - in the landscape. These testify to the capture of the upstream drainage basins - presumably by movement along the Roum fault system.
The Roum Fault system itself is marked now by a series of fault strands. These strands have modified shutter ridges and basins on their flanks. The pattern of ridges and basins is consistent with left-stepping relay ramps (on the left-lateral transform segment) together with weak transpression on each fault strand. These deductions are consistent in turn with the model for active tectonics illustrated elsewhere in this site.