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.
 The
figure to the left 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.
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
[
Photo]. 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 [
Photo].
 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 15m resolution image over a DEM and exaggerating
the topography seven times produced the image. By doing
so, these otherwise unnoticed features become visible.
The volute capitals of Mudaybi<sup>c</sup>
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