Sedimentological analyses of late Pleistocene sediments from Lake Lisan in the Jordan River Valley, Israel

Sediments in an exposed section in a quarry in the Jordan River Valley, about 6 km south of the Sea of Galilee, were investigated in order to shed light on their depositional environment. The sediments of the Quarry section were described in detail in the field and sampled for subsequent analyses. Lab treatment of the samples included smear slide production and sieving. The results from the smear slide analysis, sieve residue analysis and microfossil count data were used to interpret the depositional setting in which the sediments were produced. The fine-grained and homogenous characteristics of the sediments and their location at -214 m asl. suggest that the deposits were formed in the hypersaline Lake Lisan, the Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea, sometime between 31,000 and 19,000 years ago. Abundant calcite and shells of the brackish water ostracod Cyprideis torosa in the sediments, as well as additional shells of species such as Humphcypris subterranea, Heterocypris salina and Ilyocypris sp. in the samples indicate that the water at the location of the Quarry section was at least partly mixed with freshwater from the Sea of Galilee region in the north. The sediments were likely produced when Lake Lisan and the Sea of Galilee existed as one unified waterbody. This unification resulted in more fresh conditions of Lake Lisan at the Quarry section location than those that typically occurred in other regions of the lake further south.

Author dc:creator

• Eiríka Ösp Arnardóttir 1993-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskóli Íslands

• Jarðfræði
• Jarðsaga
• Setlög
• Setmyndun
• Rannsóknir
• Ísrael

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/29526

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/29526