During the past three decades, thousands of sinkholes were formed along the Dead Sea (DS) shorelines in Israel and Jordan, due to dissolution of subsurface salt by undersaturated groundwater. The sinkholes are associated with gradual subsidence preceding their collapse by periods ranging from a few days to almost 5 years. To determine the factors controlling this precursory subsidence, we examine tens of subsidence‐sinkhole sequences along the DS shorelines in Israel. The duration and magnitude of the precursory subsidence are determined by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements and simulated by viscoelastic damage rheology models. Longer periods of precursory subsidence are found in the cemented alluvial fans and in simulations of higher‐viscosity sediments. While surface subsidence accelerates during the precursory period, the widths of the subsiding areas remain uniform, suggesting that during this period upward propagation of damage from the subsurface cavity is not accompanied by upward migration of the actual cavity. Our observations and simulations are used to constrain the viscosity of the sediments along the DS and to reduce sinkhole hazards by assessing the precursory times of future sinkholes in the different sedimentary environments.

In 2013 and 2018, earthquake swarms with a maximum moment magnitude of 4.5 occurred ~5 km from the northern section of the Dead Sea Transform Fault. Here we show that aquifer pressure data, interferometric synthetic aperture radar surface deformation time series, and seismic monitoring suggest that groundwater withdrawal triggered these earthquakes. Continuous groundwater extraction from several wells located ~10 km west of the swarms has accelerated since 2010 and resulted in a total decrease of ~50 m of the groundwater level at the time of the 2018 earthquake swarm. The withdrawal also corresponds to surface subsidence of ~10 mm/year based on repeat interferometric synthetic aperture radar measurements. The temporal correlation, extensive subsidence, anomalous swarm characteristics, and normal faulting orientation suggest a connection between the groundwater withdrawal and recent earthquakes. Poroelastic modeling demonstrates that pumping‐induced pore pressure decrease west of the earthquake could have caused significant dilatational stresses that led to normal faulting events outside the aquifer.