Clay mineral distribution patterns as influenced by depositional processes in the Southeastern Levantine Sea

Abstract

ABSTRACTAnalysis of the clay minerals in stratigraphically defined cores (23,000 years BP to the present) in the southeastern Levantine‐Nile Cone sector of the eastern Mediterranean indicates that depositional processes are very significant in determining the distribution of clay assemblages. The interplay of long‐distance transport by water mass circulation, downslope mass gravity transport and wind dispersal is recorded by the clay assemblages in each of the stratigraphic layers. The temporal variations and spatial distribution of smectite, the dominant clay mineral of the River Nile, can be related closely to downslope gravity‐related processes and to deposition from water mass flow. Increased kaolinite, in part of wind‐blown origin from North Africa, correlates with areas receiving low terrigenous input but influenced by enhanced suspended sediment transport. Illite and chlorite distributions are most closely associated with a northern Levantine provenance and dispersal by the circulation of eastern Mediterranean water masses. Climatically induced changes may have altered the clay minerals in the region and minor diagenetic changes may have occurred, but these factors do not fully explain observed vertical clay mineral changes in the Late Quaternary. We conclude that palaeoclimatic interpretations based on vertical clay mineralogical changes at single core localities should be approached cautiously in small ocean basins such as the Mediterranean.