Quiet now, violent in history
A fault that has been calm for generations has a long, violent past.
The Dead Sea Transform slices through the Levant, from the Red Sea up toward Turkey. It has been relatively quiet in modern times, but the historical and archaeological record is full of destructive earthquakes - a reminder that a long calm is not the same as safety.
What is happening at Dead Sea Transform
The Dead Sea Transform is where the Arabian Plate slides north past the African Plate. It is the same kind of sideways-slipping boundary as the San Andreas, and it runs beneath a region with thousands of years of written history.
That long record captures major earthquakes that levelled cities across antiquity and the medieval period. The modern quiet along much of the fault means strain may be accumulating for a future large event.
The hazard record here
THE RECORD HERE
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck here in 1995.
Epicentre: 27 km SSE of Nuwaybi‘a, Egypt.
Live figures from the QuakeMate hazard API - USGS earthquake catalog, NOAA tsunami database and published recurrence estimates. Some fields are blank where there is no record.
Recent earthquakes at Dead Sea Transform
No earthquakes in the QuakeMate feed here right now. Activity can begin at any time - get instant alerts with the app.
Notable events
749
A devastating earthquake struck the Galilee and Jordan Valley in the eighth century.
1927
The Jericho earthquake caused deaths and damage across the region.
What scientists watch
Researchers combine instrument records with historical and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the fault’s long earthquake history.
Staying ahead of it
Where big quakes are rare but real, an alert overrides the false comfort of a long quiet spell.
Get QuakeMate freeGet warned before the next one at Dead Sea Transform.
QuakeMate sends a push the instant the ground moves - plus tsunami and volcano alerts. Free to download.
Dead Sea Transform: common questions
Does the Middle East have big earthquakes?
Yes. The Dead Sea Transform has produced destructive earthquakes throughout recorded history, even though modern decades have been relatively quiet along much of it.
Is the Dead Sea fault like the San Andreas?
Both are transform faults where plates slide sideways past each other. The Dead Sea Transform is distinctive for its exceptionally long historical earthquake record.
Related hazard zones
Earthquake data via the QuakeMate API (USGS, EMSC and regional agencies). Historical notes summarise well-established events; magnitudes and dates follow the published record. Live figures may be revised.