Let's talk Plate Tectonics!

Let's talk plate tectonics and faults! So to start off, Lebanon neighbors Syria, Jordan and Israel. It also homes it's longest fault, approximately 10-12 million years old--The Yammouneh Fault "...that runs along the western margin of the Bekaa and links the major fault of the Jordan Valley to the Ghab Valley Fault of Northern Syria" (http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/projects/geology/geology-of-lebanon/). The Yammouneh Fault is "...a lateral, or strike slip fault and is the Lebanese segment of the Dead Sea Transform Fault". This fault also provides a marking/boundary between "...the Arabia Plate and the Levantine part of the African Plate". As Keller states in page 30, that in "20 million years, cities will be side by side", the Yammouneh Fault has also caused Bekaa to move approximately 50 km northwards. It is not clear if the Yammouneh Fault is dead or dormant. However, although this fault may be the longest, "The Roum Fault, which runs from near Marjayoun towards Beirut is probably where most of the plate tectonic motion is going on now and may be the present plate boundary between the Arabian and the African Plate." Luckily for Lebanon, "The last recent earthquakes in Lebanon have been along this fault including the Chhim earthquake of 1956".

In an article by the Huffington Post titled, "Preparing for Lebanon's Next Earthquake" James Denselow states "Beirut was destroyed by an Earthquake-Tsunami combo in 551 AD. Today it is host to a dense urban population many of whom live in poor quality housing (especially in refugee camps and in the southern suburbs) and on soft, sandy ground near the coast. Such a population environment would be particularly vulnerable to an earthquake that Abdel-Rahman, professor and chairperson at AUB's Department of Geology, warned earlier this year 'could occur any day'" (Paragraph 2).