Late Tertiary paleodepth reconstruction of the Levant margin off Israel

Abstract

Paleodepth reconstructions of the late Tertiary Levant continental margin off Israel, using one- and two-dimensional quantitative basin analysis, reveals several interesting phenomena in the evolution of the margin, such as: tilting events of the deep basin in north–south and east–west directions; westward progradation of the continental shelf in the southern Levant; and the variation in style along the Levant margin. This variation may be the result from the decreasing influence of the Nile to the north and the increasing influence of the nearby plate boundaries. In general, the bathymetry of the margin from the deep basin to the base of the slope has become shallower since base Neogene. This reflects the general filling of the eastern Mediterranean at a time when the sediment supply from the continental margin exceeds the subsidence. The paleodepth reconstruction also suggests the existence of a deep basin in pre-Messinian time, which resembles the present one, thus implying that the deposition of the evaporites during the Messinian desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea occurred in a deep basin.