The Palmyride mountain chain is the main structure in central Syria. It
represents an intracontinental NE-SW trending fold belt, within the northern
part of the Arabian Plate. It is bounded by the Aleppo–Mardine uplift to the
North–West and by the
Hamad Uplift to the South-East.
This study is based mainly on numereous field geological observations. New
informations are obtained about the tectonic behavior of the Palmyride fold
belt. The main faults are generally normal. There is no surface geological
evidence for thrusting within the Palmyrides, as suggested by the authors
before.
The argument to be developed in this study is that the Palmyrides fold belt
owe its existence to the lateral displacement of the Triassic gypsum, not to the
lateral decollement of its overlying series, and consequently no shortening of 20
km as estimated by the authors before.
A simple model is proposed to explain the observed tectonic features. It is
interpreted that this tectonic event induced a master transfer of the Triassic
gypsum under the Arabian Plate movement toward the north and the northeast
at the Neogene time.
