Jordan Rift Valley 1

Jordan Rift Valley

Northern section of the Great Rift Valley. TheSinai Peninsula is in center and the Dead Sea and

Jordan River valley above

The Jordan Rift Valley (Arabic: الغور Al-Ghor or Al-Ghawr; Hebrew:Bik'at HaYarden) is an elongated depression located in בקעת הירדןmodern-day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Thisgeographic region includes the Jordan River, Jordan Valley, HulaValley, Lake Tiberias and the Dead Sea, the lowest land elevation onEarth. The valley continues to the Red Sea, incorporating Arabah andthe shorelines of the Gulf of Aqaba.

History and physical features

A 2003 satellite image of the region showing theJordan Rift Valley

The Jordan Rift Valley was formed many millions of years ago in theMiocene epoch (23.8 - 5.3 Myr ago) when the Arabian tectonic platemoved northward and then eastward away from Africa. One millionyears later, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan RiftValley rose so that the sea water stopped flooding the area.

The geological and environmental evolution of the valley since itsinception in the Oligocene can be seen in a variety of sedimentary andmagmatic rock units, preserved as continuous sequences in the deeperbasins. The outcropping formations around the basins representalternating deposition and erosion phases.[1]

The lowest point in the Jordan Rift Valley is in the Dead Sea, thelowest spot of which is 790 metres below sea level. The shore of theDead sea is the lowest land on earth, at 400 meters (about 1300 feet)below sea level. Rising sharply to almost 1,000 meters (almost 3,300feet) in the west, and similarly in the east, the rift is a significanttopographic feature over which a few narrow paved roads and difficultmountain tracks lead. The valley north of the Dead Sea has long been asite of agriculture because of water available from the Jordan River andnumerous springs located on the valley's flanks.

Jordan Rift Valley 2

Dead Sea TransformThe plate boundary which extends through the valley is variously called the Dead Sea Transform or Dead Sea Rift.The boundary separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, connecting the divergent plate boundary in the RedSea (the Red Sea Rift) to the East Anatolian Fault in Turkey.[2]

The interpretation of the tectonic regime that led to the development of the Dead Sea Transform is highly contested.Some consider it as a transform fault that accommodates a 105 km northwards displacement of the Arabian plate,[3]

and trace its structural evolution to the early Miocene. Others presume that the Rift is an incipient oceanic spreadingcenter, the northern extension of the Red Sea Rift,[4] and the displacement along it is oblique, with approximately10–15 km of extension in addition to the more substantial left lateral (sinistral) strike-slip. The evolution of the rift,according to this latter model, started in the late Miocene with the linear series of basins that propagated graduallyalong their axes to form the present rift valley.[5] The elucidation of the nature of the Dead Sea Transform/Rift is amatter of ongoing study and discussion.

DemographyThe Jordanian population of the valley is over 85,000 people, most of whom are farmers, and 80% of the farms inthe Jordanian part of the valley are family farms no larger than 30 dunams (3 ha, 7.4 ac).Some 47,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank in about twenty permanentcommunities, most of them reside in the city of Jericho. Thousands of Bedouins also live in temporarycommunities.[citation needed]

Date palms of Kibbutz Gesher, Jordan Rift Valley

About 11,000 Israelis live in 17 kibbutzim that form part of the EmekHaYarden Regional Council in Israel,[6] while an additional 7,500 livein twenty-six Israeli settlements and five Nahal encampments that havebeen established in the part of the Jordan Valley that lies in the WestBank.[citation needed] Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, the valley'sJordanian side was home to about 60,000 people largely engaged inagriculture and pastoralism. By 1971, the population had declined to5,000 as a result of the war and the 1970-71 conflict between thePalestinian guerrillas and the Jordanian armed forces. Investments bythe Jordanian government in the region allowed the population torebound to over 85,000 by 1979.

Since the end of the 1967 war, every Israeli government has considered the western Jordan Valley to be the easternborder of Israel with Jordan. The 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan defines the international borderbetween the countries on the Jordan river in the center of the Jordan valley.

Panorama of Jordan Valley

Jordan Rift Valley 3

AgricultureThe Jordan River rises from several sources, mainly the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria. It flows down into theSea of Galilee, 212 meters below sea level, and then drains into the Dead Sea. South of the Dead Sea, the JordanValley turns into the hot, dry Arabah valley.The Jordan Valley is several degrees warmer than adjacent areas, and its year-round agricultural climate, fertile soilsand water supply made it a site for agriculture dating to about 10,000 years ago. By about 3000 BCE, produce fromthe valley was being exported to neighboring regions.In the last few decades, modern methods of farming have vastly expanded the agricultural output of the area. Theconstruction of the East Ghor Canal by Jordan in 1950s (now known as the King Abdullah Canal), which runs downthe east bank of the Jordan Valley for 69 kilometers, has brought new areas under irrigation. The introduction ofportable greenhouses has brought about a sevenfold increase in productivity, allowing Jordan to export largeamounts of fruit and vegetables year-round.

TourismThe area's fertile lands were chronicled in the Hebrew Bible, where it was the site of several miracles for the peopleof Israel, such as the Jordan River stopping its flow to allow the Jewish people, led by the Ark of the Covenant, topass over. The Jordan River is revered by Christians as the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ.

References[1] The Jordan Rift Valley (http:/ / www. tau. ac. il/ ~archpubs/ projects/ horjordanriftvalley. html), Tel Aviv University[2] The Geophysical Institute (http:/ / www. gii. co. il/ html/ ground/ GravityNew/ DeadSeaStudy. html#)[3] e.g. Freund et al., 1970, The Shear along the Dead Sea Rift, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A,

Mathematical and Physical Sciences Vol. 267, No. 1181 and Joffe and Garfunkel, 1987, Plate Kinematics of the Circum Red-Sea - AReevaluation, Tectonophysics v. 141 (1-3): 5-22

[4] Horowitz, Aharon, The Jordan Rift Valley, Taylor & Francis, 2001 ISBN 978-90-5809-351-6[5] Mart, Y., 1994, The Dead Sea rift, a leaky transform fault or an oblique spreading center: a short review, Africa Geosci. Rev. 1, 567–578[6] About Emek Hayarden R.C. (http:/ / bohabayta. com/ meshakim/ RC_Emek_Hayarden/ default_eng. asp)

Coordinates: 32°19′02″N 35°34′12″E (http:/ / tools. wmflabs. org/ geohack/ geohack.php?pagename=Jordan_Rift_Valley& params=32_19_02_N_35_34_12_E_source:kolossus-frwiki)

Media related to Jordan Rift Valley at Wikimedia Commons

Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsJordan Rift Valley  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=585526470  Contributors: 21655, AHusain314, Aymatth2, Batamt, Bgwhite, Colonies Chris, Cxbrx, David1955,Deeptext, Faigl.ladislav, Gilabrand, Hertz1888, IZAK, Ian Pitchford, Jarble, Justinchudgar, Kintetsubuffalo, Laurel Lodged, Lightmouse, Lx 121, Medeis, Mikenorton, Nableezy, Nadav1,Naviguessor, Netanel h, NoCal100, R'n'B, Rachack, Shuki, Supreme Deliciousness, Tewfik, Tiamut, Tmangray, Vsmith, WShipway, Ynhockey, Юкатан, 33 ,روخو anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Greatrift.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Greatrift.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: NASA/JSCFile:Satellite image of Israel in January 2003.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Satellite_image_of_Israel_in_January_2003.jpg  License: Public Domain Contributors: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFCFile:PikiWiki Israel 9831 Geography of Israel.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:PikiWiki_Israel_9831_Geography_of_Israel.jpg  License: Creative CommonsAttribution 2.5  Contributors: אילנה שקולניקFile:Jordan Valley Panorama.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jordan_Valley_Panorama.jpg  License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors:Юкатанfile:Commons-logo.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Commons-logo.svg  License: logo  Contributors: Anomie

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/