On February 6, 2023, two large earthquakes occurred near the Turkish town of Kahramanmaraş. The moment magnitude (Mw) 7.8 mainshock ruptured a 310 km-long segment of the left-lateral East Anatolian Fault, propagating through multiple releasing step-overs. The Mw 7.6 aftershock involved nearby left-lateral strike-slip faults of the East Anatolian Fault Zone, causing a 150 km-long rupture. We use remote-sensing observations to constrain the spatial distribution of coseismic slip for these two events and the February 20 Mw 6.4 aftershock near Antakya. Pixel tracking of optical and synthetic aperture radar data of the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 satellites, respectively, provide near-field surface displacements. High-rate Global Navigation Satellite System data constrain each event separately. Coseismic slip extends from the surface to about 15 km depth with a shallow slip deficit. Most aftershocks cluster at major fault bends, surround the regions of high coseismic slip, or extend outward of the ruptured faults. For the mainshock, rupture propagation stopped southward at the diffuse termination of the East Anatolian fault and tapered off northward into the Pütürge segment, some 20 km south of the 2020 Mw 6.8 Elaziğ earthquake, highlighting a potential seismic gap. These events underscore the high seismic potential of immature fault systems.

We geodetically investigate the interseismic deformation along two neighboring sections of the Dead Sea Fault in Israel and present first clear evidence for shallow creep along this fault. We obtain the velocities of near‐fault GPS campaign stations across the northern section of the Jordan Valley Fault (JVF) and the Jordan Gorge Section (JGS) that were surveyed each year between 2009 and 2015. The JVF extends from the northern shore of the Dead Sea to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the JGS extends from the Sea of Galilee to the Hula Basin. We infer a slip rate of ~4.1 mm/yr and a locking depth of ~10 km for both sections. Data analysis indicates that while the JGS is found to be fully locked above the locking depth, the northern section of the JVF is found to be creeping from a depth of 1.5 ± 1.0 km to the surface, with a creep rate of 2.5 ± 0.8 mm/yr. Our observations also suggest that the current slip rate of the fault at the western margin of the Jordan Valley is minor, less than the GPS velocities uncertainties.

Crustal deformation and seismic activity in the Levant is mainly related to the interplate Dead Sea Fault (DSF) and the intraplate Carmel–Gilboa Fault System (CGFS). In this study, we analyze the interseismic deformation along these fault systems using 23 years of Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements obtained from 209 campaign and 60 continuous stations. This GPS data set is the longest record and the densest data set for the DSF, the CGFS, and the Levant region. We use this data set to investigate the spatial variations of slip and creep rates along the southern and central sections of the DSF and the CGFS. Our inversion model results indicate that part of the tectonic motion is transferred from the DSF to the CGFS. We find that the left‐lateral strike‐slip motion along the DSF decreases in a rate of 0.9 ± 0.4 mm/year, from 4.8 ± 0.3 mm/year south to the intersection with the CGFS to 3.9 ± 0.4 mm/year north to this intersection. Along the CGFS, the left‐lateral strike‐slip motion ranges between ∼0.3 and 0.5 mm/year and the extension rate between ∼0.6 and 0.7 mm/year, indicating a total slip rate vector of 0.8 ± 0.4 mm/year in the DSF direction, in agreement with the reduction of slip rate along the DSF near the intersection with the CGFS. Shallow creep is found along the southern and central sections of the Dead Sea basin and the northern Jordan Valley section of the DSF, with creep rates of 3.4 ± 0.4 and 2.3 ± 0.4 mm/year, respectively. These creeping sections were identified as areas with thick Halite layers at the shallow subsurface. We suggest that shallow creep behavior along the DSF is govern by the presence and mechanical properties of the Halite, which probably allows plastic deformation and the transition to velocity strengthening at the shallow subsurface and promotes creep.

Detailed field and geodetic observations of crustal deformation across the Jericho Fault section of the Dead Sea Fault are presented. New field observations reveal several slip episodes that rupture the surface, consist with strike slip and extensional deformation along a fault zone width of about 200 m. Using dense Global Positioning System measurements, we obtain the velocities of new stations across the fault. We find that this section is locked for strike‐slip motion with a locking depth of 16.6 ± 7.8 km and a slip rate of 4.8 ± 0.7 mm/year. The Global Positioning System measurements also indicate asymmetrical extension at shallow depths of the Jericho Fault section, between 0.3 and 3 km. Finally, our results suggest the vast majority of the sinistral slip along the Dead Sea Fault in southern Jorden Valley is accommodated by the Jericho Fault section.