The Ramp theory was proposed without success as a mechanism for the formation of the Dead Sea (Willis 1928), is there any other place on earth where this mechanism proved to be successful?
Willis B. 1928, Dead Sea problem :- rift valley or ramp valley ?. BSSA, 39, 490-542.
Those mechanisms have been replaced by plate tectonics. As I understand it the Dead Sea is the northern extension of the Great Rift Valley which further south forms the East African Rift.
Dear Alastir,
Although Plate Tectonics revolutionized our look to all disciplines of Earth Science, No influence of Plate Tectonics on the question and its answers, it is widely known now that the Dead Sea is a Pull-appart basin resulting from the left lateral strike slip taking place on the Jordan Dead Sea Transform Fault System. The determination of the fault's general movement could be deduced from the work of the French Louis Lartet in his thesis back in 1869 with the title " Géologie de la Palestine...). The sinistral strike slip shear nature of the fault was established from geological considerations in the work of Quennel in the 1950s before the emergence of Plate Tectonics and proven by seismology as attested in all the fault plan solutions of major instrumentally recorded earthquakes on the transform. The East African Rift System has a different mechanism which is related to extentional tectonics ( involving normal faulting), while the ramp idea has to do with compressional tectonics and reverse faulting. Thank you for your contribution.
Dear Najib,
I would like to mention that recent study on Ghab segment of DSFS in Syria doen't support strike slip left lateral movement. The GPS stations showed that no movement at all near the Syria-Lebanon border in the southern part of Al-ghab pull apart basin.
The whole DSFS should study well before we judge. In my opinion, the seismic sources in Syria have changed widely especially along DSFS.