Levant Basin Research Articles

Exploring the relationship between sedimentary transport systems and basin dynamics: A case study from the Levant Basin (Eastern Mediterranean Sea) before, during, and after the Messinian

Submarine channels serve as routes transporting sediments across hundreds of kilometers from continental margins to the deepest parts of a basin’s seafloor. Consequently, owing to the influential role of gravity in determining the flow direction, these channels typically follow the steepest sloping paths, making paleo-drainage systems essential in reconstructing basin dynamics over geological periods. This research aims to document the interrelationships between tectonic tilting, rapid deposition of salt, and delta sediment propagation on basin morphology and consequently on sedimentary transport orientation. Here, we examine how the interplay between these geological processes influenced the orientation of submarine channels in the Levant Basin, our case study, over ∼10 m.y. During the late Miocene, sediments originating from the Levant continental margin were transported to the deep parts of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (i.e., the Herodotus Basin) via a tectonic valley active until the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Later, exceptionally fast burial by salt and subsequent truncation of this evaporitic layer produced a nearly horizontal seafloor that redirected the regional drainage toward the basin’s center, with no connection to the adjacent and much deeper Herodotus Basin. This drainage configuration did not last long since tilting of the basin northward toward the Cyprus subduction zone and northward propagation of the Nile delta have rapidly reshaped basin morphology, resulting in a rotation of major sedimentary routes in the area. From a broad perspective, this research not only exemplifies how rapid salt burial can reset a basin’s drainage system but also has implications for geodynamic and geomorphic processes in evaporite-bearing sedimentary basins within tectonically active areas.

Early extensional salt tectonics controls deep-water sediment dispersal

Predicting the distribution of sedimentary facies during the early stages of deformation of salt-detached continental margins is key to constraining the location and stratigraphic architecture of hydrocarbon and CO2 reservoirs, as well as to understanding the oceanic carbon cycle. Despite its importance, we still have a relatively poor understanding of salt-sediment interactions during the early phases of extensional salt tectonics, mainly because subsequent salt-related deformation and/or deep burial of the related stratigraphic succession means the related deposits are poorly imaged in seismic reflection data and/or not penetrated by borehole data. We investigated the interplay between early extension-related salt deformation and deep-water sediment dispersal using 3-D seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin offshore Lebanon. Our results indicate that salt tectonics has two contrasting impacts: Whereas slope-parallel faults favor early sediment transfer along downslope-oriented corridors to the abyssal plain, slope-normal faults and ramp-syncline basins trap land-derived sediments, hampering or delaying their transport to the abyssal plain. These results help refine source-to-sink models of turbidite systems developing in young salt basins, highlighting the crucial role of extensional tectonics in controlling sediment dispersal and the development of intra-slope depocenters and emphasizing the impact of fault strike, ramp-syncline basin evolution, and salt thinning. Our study has significant implications for predicting the location of deep-water coarse-grained sediment and the preservation of land-derived organic carbon in mature, more structurally complex, salt basins.

Offshore freshened groundwater reservoirs controlled by submarine faults with a complex dependency on antecedent hydrogeological conditions

Offshore Freshened Groundwater (OFG) reservoirs are gaining attention, as evidence suggests they are more prevalent worldwide than previously thought. OFG systems are generally classified as either passive, a relic of ancient, lower sea levels, or as active, with an onshore-offshore hydrogeologic connection and associated discharge offshore. Previous studies on the mechanisms of OFG were conducted in various hydrogeologic settings, but the role of faults remains understudied. Based on geologic data, we apply hydrogeologic modeling of a faulted submarine confined aquifer in the Levant basin (eastern Mediterranean), to study the impact of faults on OFG. We find that faults that are close to the coastline and within the brackish zone that would have developed without a fault control the offshore salinities regardless of initial conditions. The influence of distal faults, in contrast, depends on antecedent conditions. When initial salinities are such that the distal fault lies in the fresh part of the aquifer, the saline wedge migrates landward toward the fault with sea-level rise, and the fault dictates the steady-state salinity distribution. If the fault is initially within the saline part of the aquifer, freshwater never reaches the fault, likely due to the density-driven flow barrier that the underlying saline wedge generates. These findings suggest a new mode of OFG in which the same geologic system can be either active or passive depending on the hydrologic history. This should be considered in future studies of OFG systems, the functioning of which has implications for marine ecosystems, seafloor geomorphology, and coastal water resources.

Salt-related gravity-driven processes in the Levant Basin, Eastern Mediterranean: Insights from physical modeling

The characterization of salt tectonics and its gravity-driven deformation processes are the key to a better understanding of the structural evolution of salt-bearing rifted margins. Unlike most salt basins that have experienced long-lasting deformation, the Messinian evaporites in the Levant Basin have been moderately deformed, offering the opportunity to study the early stage of salt tectonic deformation. Despite the availability of seismic reflection, borehole and bathymetrical data, some uncertainties still exist about the mechanisms responsible for the deformation and structural features observed in the deep-water Levant Basin. Our study includes physical experiments based on published seismic and structural interpretations conducted in the Levant Basin. Our physical experiments take into consideration the main driving parameters that controlled the development of the deep-water Levant Basin, testing the interplay and impact of gravity gliding and spreading from the Levant Margin, gravity spreading from the Nile Deep Sea Fan, and the influence of the passive buttress of the Eratosthenes Seamount. Deformation was imposed by depositing successive sand lobes and/or by tilting the experimental table. The physical models included a thick viscous silicone layer, analogue of the Messinian evaporitic sequence, overlain by a granular overburden, simulating the brittle clastic post-Messinian succession. Results show that the prominent gravity-driven force affecting the deformation pattern of the deep-water Levant Basin is the gravity spreading from the Nile Deep Sea Fan, whereas gravity spreading and gliding from the Levant Margin affect only the proximal to the margin areas. Additionally, the buttressing effect of the Eratosthenes Seamount and the location of the salt basin pinch-out played an important role in the final deformation pattern of this region of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Episodic fluid venting from sedimentary basins fueled by pressurized mudstones

Subsurface sandstone reservoirs sealed by overlying, low-permeability layers provide capacity for long-term sequestration of anthropogenic waste. Leakage can occur if reservoir pressures rise sufficiently to fracture the seal. Such pressures can be generated within the reservoir by vigorous injection of waste or, over thousands of years, by natural processes. In either case, the precise role of intercalated mudstones in the long-term evolution of reservoir pressure remains unclear; these layers have variously been viewed as seals, as pressure sinks, or as pressure sources. Here, we use the geological record of episodic fluid venting in the Levant Basin to provide striking evidence for the pressure-source hypothesis. We use a Bayesian framework to combine recently published venting data, which record critical subsurface pressures since ∼2 Ma, with a stochastic model of pressure evolution to infer a pressure-recharge rate of ∼30 MPa/Myr. To explain this large rate, we quantify and compare a range of candidate mechanisms. We find that poroelastic pressure diffusion from mudstones provides the most plausible explanation for these observations, amplifying the ∼3 MPa/Myr recharge caused primarily by tectonic compression. Since pressurized mudstones are ubiquitous in sedimentary basins, pressure diffusion from mudstones is likely to promote seal failure globally.

Discovery of the Messinian Eratosthenes Canyon in the deep Levant Basin

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was a major disruptive event in Earth's history involving all Earth's systems - hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. Approximately six million years ago, the entire Mediterranean Sea turned into a hypersaline basin when the Gibraltar gateway to the Atlantic Ocean narrowed and evaporation exceeded fresh water input. Consequently, marine fauna died and massive deposition of salt on the seafloor had led to the formation of the world's youngest salt giant.A fundamental observation related to this enigmatic period is a remarkable erosional surface, associated with 100 s-of-m deep canyons that were incised across the Mediterranean's continental margins during the crisis. Such canyons across the Levant margins were described in the 1970s and, later, in the 2000s they were shown to be the gateway for shallow, sinuous, submarine channels that continued towards deeper parts of the basin. Though it could have been assumed that these channels end as terminal sedimentary lobes in the Levant Basin, we show here that they contributed to a much wider sedimentary system in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: farther west, they merge into a nearly 500-m-deep and ∼ 10-km-wide canyon, which we name after the nearby Eratosthenes Seamount. This remarkable canyon was excavated at the beginning of the MSC prior to salt deposition. We suggest that incision took place during Stage 1 of the MSC, but we cannot rule out faster incision (10s of ky) at the end of Stage 1 (∼5.60 Ma), or at its very beginning (∼5.97 Ma).Regardless of its exact age, we show that the Eratosthenes Canyon was excavated subaqueously and suggest that incision was caused by gravity currents, such as sediment-laden turbidites and/or dense brines. We argue that the increased salinity at the beginning of the crisis and a possibly limited sea level fall - whose amplitude should be investigated - had triggered these gravity currents, destabilizing the continental margin and carving the seabed wherever it was steep enough.

Long-term carbon sequestration in the Eocene of the Levant Basin through transport of organic carbon from nearshore to deep marine environments

This study addresses a specific component associated with mass transport complexes in marine systems: the role of hyperpycnal flows, dense shelf water cascading, submarine canyons, distributary channels, and other transport mechanisms in transferring organic matter from continental and shallow marine settings into deep-marine environments. We speculate that during the Eocene, allowing for only 0.1‰ of shelf carbon to be preserved through transport mechanisms would account for up to 13.7% of all organic carbon burial. As such, the potential to mobilize through this mechanism large quantities of organic carbon is significant.Our case study focuses on a 150 m Eocene sequence composed of organic-rich chalks interleaved with displaced neritic limestones. TOC values range between 1.5 and 14%, averaging 4.5%. Displaced limestones are composed of a variety of poorly cemented mud- and wackestones, with low-diversity assemblages of large benthic foraminifera associated with planktonic foraminifera, suggesting deposition under low-energy conditions within the oligophotic zone on the outer ramp. Transport overprints include soft-sediment deformation, partially lithified rip-ups, folds, small diapirs, bed-scale imbrication, brecciation and syn-sedimentary shear. These features indicate detachment, movement and emplacement following initial sedimentation, in some cases more than once. Emplacement occurs into a chalk facies that can vary in appearance from darker (higher TOC) and lighter (lower TOC) lithofacies.Combination between the sedimentological, petrophysical, and elemental analyses indicates shifts between autochthonous and allochthonous sedimentation, whereas the organic geochemical analysis reveals a correlation between modes of sedimentation and preservation/composition of organic matter. Organic richness seems to increase within intervals of allochthonous sedimentation, with lower TOC values within intervals of autochthonous sedimentation. Organic matter preservation is enhanced due to poor oxygenation of the sea floor, further depleted by rapid burial beneath mass-transport deposits, increasing sedimentation rates and thus organic matter preservation. Horizons rich in organic matter may be derived from three different sources: organic matter with a fingerprint of terrestrial sources (e.g., enhanced contribution of plant leaf waxes) transported from nearshore environments; an allochthonous marine fingerprint with sulfurized hopanoids, which seem to be reworked from pre-existing Cretaceous organic-rich carbonates entrained within fined-grained micro-turbidites in the para-autochthonous facies; and productivity-derived organic matter deposited on the seafloor of the deep marine environment.This study demonstrates how transport mechanisms allow for the long-term burial of organic carbon in marine systems. When taking into consideration similar processes reported to occur in the world oceans today, it is clear that sediment transport and long-term burial of organic carbon is a fundamental part of the global carbon cycle.

Occurrence and Genesis of Cold‐Seep Authigenic Carbonates from the South‐Eastern Mediterranean Sea

AbstractMethane‐derived authigenic seep carbonates occur globally along continental margins. These carbonates are important archives to identify seep dynamics, the source of the ascending methane‐enriched fluids together with their timing, and are an important carbon sequestration mechanism. Recently, seep carbonates were discovered in the Levant Basin in the south‐eastern Mediterranean Sea. To elucidate past seepage activity and dynamics across the basin, different seep carbonate morphologies (chimneys, crusts and pavements) retrieved from the Levant Basin were mapped based on remotely operating vehicle data and analysed using standard sediment petrographic techniques, X‐ray diffraction and stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses. Carbonate chimneys consist of micrite (δ13CVPDB of −10‰ to +5‰) with dispersed baryte and dolomite crystals, fan‐shaped aragonite (δ13CVPDB of −52‰ to −30‰) and high‐magnesium calcite cements, with the latter often growing from low‐magnesium calcite spherules. Botryoidal low‐magnesium calcite cements are forming in small cavities. Carbonate crusts consist of micrite with low‐magnesium calcite breccias, high‐magnesium calcite nodules (δ13CVPDB of −35‰ to −20‰) and cements, and partially replaced fan‐shaped aragonite cements. Carbonate pavements consist of low‐magnesium calcite microsparite, micritic dolomite and high‐magnesium calcite. Fan‐shaped aragonite is locally present as pore‐lining cement. Iron oxides are often seen coating the low‐magnesium calcite, high‐magnesium calcite and dolomite cements. Chimneys and crusts, characterised by high amounts of high‐magnesium calcite and aragonite, are interpreted to have formed through advective methane fluxes. Pavements, with high quantities of dolomite, are explained as the product of diffusive methane flux. Sediment petrographic and geochemical analysis of the different carbonate morphologies and cement phases therein witness distinct modes of ascending fluid fluxes and their mixing with marine pore water and/or sea water during precipitation of the individual phases.

Seismic stratigraphy of the southern Eratosthenes High, eastern Mediterranean Sea: growth, demise and deformation of three superposed carbonate platforms (Mesozoic–Cenozoic)

Interpretation of seismic data over the southeastern flank of the Eratosthenes High shows nine principal seismic stratigraphic units overlying probable faulted basement. Among these are three superposed carbonate platforms that build a stratigraphy exceeding 3000 m. Regional comparisons suggest these range in age from Jurassic to Miocene.The Jurassic carbonate platform exhibits a layered stratigraphy and aggradational deposition style over the whole study area. A Lower Cretaceous platform subsequently developed as a linear, aggrading bank and prograded as multiple high-frequency sequences for more than 40 km into the Eratosthenes High interior, isolating an intrashelf basin that remained connected to the Levant Basin by a narrow seaway. The Jurassic platform margin was a fault-controlled, scalloped escarpment, while the mid-Cretaceous platform was strongly influenced by linear, NW–SE-orientated, fault-controlled sags.The Miocene platform, a shoaling, ‘catch-up’ neritic shelf, was established after a hiatus during which the flat top of the Cretaceous platform lay below the photic zone. The Miocene platform surface was subsequently incised by Messinian erosional channels that fed offlapping and downstepping regressive carbonate or evaporitic shorelines which tracked Messinian sea-level fall. Updoming and segmentation of the Eratosthenes High occurred during the early Messinian prior to the emplacement of Messinian salt onto its flanks.

Tracing Oligocene−Miocene source-to-sink systems in the deep Levant Basin: A sandstone provenance study

The Levant Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean contains an ∼3-km-thick, predominantly siliciclastic section of Oligocene−Miocene age, which hosts large hydrocarbon reservoirs (“Tamar Sands Play”). Here, we present a provenance study of Oligocene−Miocene sandstones based on detrital zircon U-Pb-Hf and heavy mineral assemblages. Samples were retrieved from four boreholes across the Levant Basin: Myra-1, Dolphin-1, Leviathan-1, and Karish North-1. Our investigations revealed that the sediments are dominated by Neoproterozoic and older Precambrian zircons with variable Hf isotopic composition, indicating that they were mainly reworked from Paleozoic−Mesozoic sandstones of African-Arabian provenance, with minor derivation from the Neoproterozoic basement of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Variations in the proportions of pre−900 Ma zircons were encountered in various levels of the siliciclastic section. These zircons were markedly enriched (44%−57%) in the Rupelian and Aquitanian−Burdigalian intervals, accompanied by abundant detrital apatite peloids in the heavy mineral fraction, and relatively sparse (21%−38%) in the Chattian−Aquitanian and Langhian−Tortonian intervals, alongside scarce Mesozoic−Cenozoic zircons. These findings allow us to associate the deep-basin detrital record with two sedimentary transport systems that reached the Levant Basin from both NE Africa and Arabia simultaneously until the late Miocene, when sediment transport from Arabia ceased. While Rupelian and Aquitanian−Burdigalian sediments, including the main section of the “Tamar Sands,” were derived mainly from Arabian sources via the Levant continental margin, Chattian−Aquitanian and Langhian−Tortonian sediments were primarily sourced from NE Africa via the Nile Delta. Detrital contribution from the Eurasian side of the Eastern Mediterranean was not identified, suggesting that sand originating in the Arabia-Eurasia collision belt did not reach the Levant Basin.

Proximity and distance – Review of seaweed communities and the marine environment along the coasts of the Levant Basin

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of the environmental factors affecting the ecology of seaweed (macroalgae) populations in the Levant Basin, attempting to identify both similar and different factors that determine distribution. Using correspondence analysis (CA) the study found a significantly similar pattern in the relations between countries and macroalgae – both for the whole group and within each phylum: Chlorophyta, Ochrophyta, Rhodophyta. The study identified two different macroalgae populations in the Levant Basin: The easternmost group living in open water off the coasts of Syria, Lebanon and Israel, and the shell group found in more sheltered waters in Egypt, Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and Republic of Cyprus (Greece Cyprus): south Cyprus; and the North Cyprus. The differences between the two communities can be explained by dynamic wave activity. Following a taxonomic and nomenclatural revision according to AlgaeBase, of 693 species to date recorded from the studied area, only 573 species remained. 26 of them appear in all 7 countries and other 68 in 6 countries. 204 species appear in only one country. 3 or 4 species have only been described in the Middle East and could be endemic.

Seismic characteristics and AVO response for non-uniform Miocene reservoirs in offshore eastern Mediterranean region, Egypt

The Eastern Mediterranean region, extending from the Offshore Nile Delta Cone of Egypt to the Levant Basin, is a confirmed hydrocarbon-rich territory with several giant gas discoveries. Numerous gas fields have been discovered in the Miocene reservoirs within the Nile Delta Cone, and the Levant Basin. The Miocene sedimentary sequences in this region are extremely heterogeneous, consisting mainly of turbiditic slope deposits, channels, and basin floor fans that were capped by evaporites formed during the Messinian Salinity Crisis. As a result, the seismic characteristics and interpreted properties of this heterogeneous section are ambiguous. The study area is located in the Offshore North Sinai Basin, where a thick Early Miocene section was deposited midway between the Nile Delta province, which includes the El-Fayrouz discovery, and the Levant Basin, which includes Tamar, Tanin, and several other discoveries. This study uses quantitative seismic interpretations methods, such as amplitude variations with offset and fluid replacement modeling, to assess the seismic acoustic impedance trend with depth. Also, determine the seismic amplitude response for the brine and gas sands reservoir of the Early and Late Miocene section to link the unexplored study area within the North Sinai Offshore Basin with the explored Nile Delta and Levant Basins. In addition to evaluate direct hydrocarbon indicator (DHI) of the dimming seismic amplitude that is compatible with the structure’s last closed contour of the Syrian Arc anticline of the Early Miocene reservoirs (EMT-1 prospect). Different vintages of 2D and 3D seismic data, six wells, and various published data were used in this study. The quantitative interpretation shows the pitfalls of the acoustic impedance trend and seismic response dependency on depth for gas and brine sand, which led to the drilling of the EMT-1 dry well. Also, the fluid replacement, P-wave velocity (Vp), and density (ρ) modeling confirmed that the seismic dimming amplitude was due to a seismic processing artifact, which was corrected by readjusting the overburden Messinian salt processing velocity model. This research concludes that the seismic quantitative interpretations are successfully used to assess the acoustic impedance versus depth and understand DHI pitfalls, as well as the processing workflow that could enhance the seismic image.

Mass wasting records the first stages of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract The geological processes that occurred during the deposition of the Mediterranean salt giant are poorly constrained, limiting our understanding of the earliest phase of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Using three-dimensional seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, we investigated a previously unrecognized deposit at the base of the Messinian halite that we interpret as an extensive mass-transport complex (MTC). While MTCs have been described within stratigraphically equivalent deposits in the western Mediterranean Sea, this is the first such MTC documented at the base of the halite in the eastern Mediterranean. The spatial distribution and seismic facies of the MTC suggest a slope failure origin, likely in response to multiple processes including tectonic activity and sea-level fall. Our study indicates that margin instability was diffuse across the entire Mediterranean during the early stages of Messinian halite deposition, with implications for the chronology of erosional events and sediment transport to the deep basin.

The early evolution of the Neotethys in the eastern Mediterranean area: implication of new evidence from the Levant basin and margin

Analysis and re-evaluation of recently obtained data from seismic reflection surveys and deep offshore and onland boreholes from the continental margin of Israel and the adjacent Levant basin, combined with pre-existing data, provide significant new insight into their early, Triassic to Middle Jurassic, development. Thick Middle Jurassic and older sediments in the Levant basin next to Israel cover a substantial relief of a pre-existing thin crust that was shaped in the Middle Triassic or earlier times. In the Levant margin near the present-day coastal area and further onshore the early development of the basin was accompanied by two major deformation phases, in the Triassic and in the Middle Jurassic, separated by a period (much of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic) in which deformation and subsidence slowed down considerably or ceased. In contrast, in the Mt Carmel area conspicuous faulting and magmatism took place in the Late Triassic (older history unknown); that is, during the period of tectonic quiescence farther south, implying significantly different evolution of this and the more southern parts of the margin. Few Triassic igneous rocks are known onshore Israel, but widespread Late Triassic submarine volcanic rocks, associated with deep-marine sediments, were documented in the remnants of the northern extension of the Levant basin in the present-day area of Turkey and Cyprus, which probably represent the same regional tectonic phase. Renewed subsidence of the Levant margin and adjacent lands since the late part of the Early Jurassic was associated with renewed faulting along the Levant margin and in the adjacent lands, involving significant changes in the deformation pattern. A Middle Jurassic continental slope, >1 km high from top to base, developed along the Levant margin and deep-water conditions in the adjacent basin were established. This configuration is expected to have existed also in earlier times, in association with the formation of the basin's thin crust next to the much thicker crust beneath the bordering continental area, but evidence for the earlier depositional history is limited by the lack of deep seismic and well data. In view of the extensive evidence presented here, a Cretaceous age for the formation of the Levant basin and margin that was recently suggested appears to be unlikely.

Prvi nalaz vrste Pomacanthus maculosus (Pomacanthidae) u sirijskim obalnim vodama (istočno Sredozemno more)

On 16 June 2022, two specimens of Pomacanthus maculosus (Forsskål, 1775) were observed in the Syrian marine waters. One specimen was captured and classified, measured, preserved in formaldehyde and deposited at Tishreen University. It is a second substantiated record in the Levant Basin, and the first for the Syrian coast. The successful establishment of a viable population of P. maculosus in the Mediterranean Sea remains a suitable hypothesis which cannot be totally ruled out.

Origin and kinematics of a basin‐scale, non‐polygonal, layer‐bound normal fault system in the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean

AbstractPolygonal, layer‐bound normal faults can extend over very large areas (>2,000,000 km2) of sedimentary basins. Best developed in very fine‐grained rocks, these faults are thought to form during early burial in response to a range of diagenetic processes, including compaction and water expulsion. Local deviations from this idealised polygonal pattern are common; however, basin‐scale, layer‐bound faults with non‐polygonal map view are not well‐documented and accordingly, their genesis is not well understood. In this study, we use 3D seismic reflection data, biostratigraphy and well logs from the Southern Levant Basin, offshore Israel, to develop an age‐constrained seismic‐stratigraphic framework and determine the geometry and kinematics of such basin‐scale fault system. The faults tip out downwards along an Eocene Unconformity, but unlike layer‐bound faults in the Northern Levant Basin, they do not reach the base of the Messinian evaporites, instead tipping out upwards at the top Langhian. On average, the faults in the Southern Levant Basin are 6.3 km long, have an average throw of 120 m, and consistently strike NW‐SE. Throw‐depth plots, accompanied by thickness changes, indicate that the faults accumulated growth strata during the Late Burdigalian and are spatially and kinematically associated with a WSW‐ESE‐striking strike‐slip fault. Unlike true polygonal faults, these faults propagated through ca. 2 km‐thick sandstone‐prone Oligocene‐Miocene strata. Whereas previous studies from the Northern Levant Basin associate fault nucleation and growth with burial‐related diagenesis, the sandstone‐prone character of the Oligocene‐Miocene suggests that this process cannot be readily applied to the Southern Levant Basin. Instead, we highlight potential tectonic events that occurred during and may have triggered thin‐skinned extension at times of fault growth.

Late Messinian submarine channel systems in the Levant Basin: Challenging the desiccation scenario

Abstract The question of whether the Mediterranean Sea desiccated during the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) has been strongly debated for decades. In the Levant Basin, this debate was recently reignited in relation to the latest stage of the crisis after cessation of salt deposition. The desiccation supporters argue that salt truncation—and its subsequent burial by a latest Messinian, clastic-rich evaporitic unit—occurred subaerially on a desiccated seafloor. However, we show that this latest Messinian unit contains a dense net of channels with meanders, levees, and overspill deposits and is very similar to the turbidite channels observed on the modern seafloor. The aggradation characteristics of these buried channels (levee height, channel depth, and channel-floodplain coupling) indicate a marine rather than fluvial origin. Our conclusion adds to the findings of a previous study that salt truncation occurred in deep waters by dissolution. In a wider perspective, we suggest that the flush of clastics into the basin during the last stage of the MSC indicates a combination of wet climate and sea-level rise that started before the Zanclean (earliest Pliocene).

Trends in organic matter deposition in the Cretaceous of the eastern Mediterranean: Revisiting and updating the chronology and facies of the Eratosthenes Seamount deposits

In this study we revisited the Cretaceous of the Eratosthenes Seamount (ESM) from IODP LEG 160 Hole 967E, updating the chronology, depositional environment, and paleobathymetry of the ESM. Our goal was also to address the spatio-temporal distribution of organic matter and, by comparison with the eastern margins of the Levant Basin, discuss basin-wide controls on its deposition and preservation.The investigated core has a relatively continuous Cretaceous succession from the Aptian to the Danian. By identifying the Pα Zone we conclude that the base of the Paleocene is included in the 967E section. A total of 17 ages were identified, with low sedimentation rates of 0.04–2.37 cm/kyr. Petrographic analysis revealed pronounced differences, from micritic pellets, benthic foraminifera, algae, and mollusks in the bottom part of the core, to deep water facies in the uppermost Cretaceous. Paleobathymetry ranged between 0.5 and 5 m in the Aptian to 300–600 m in the Maastrichtian.Both high productivity and OMZ conditions prevailed during the Cenomanian–Turonian, as well as elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. While the low core recovery might affect reliable interpretation, we present two alternative explanations for the high vs. low organic content of the Campanian–Maastrichtian in the eastern Levant Basin vs. the ESM: (1) Location relative to upwelling cells; (2) Relative bathymetry, with the ESM representing a paleohigh for much of the Cretaceous, similar to the organic-poor anticline deposits in the eastern Levant, where the massive intervals of organic-rich carbonates accumulated only in the synclines of the Syrian Arc deformational belt.

First substantiated record of slender goby Gobius geniporus (Osteichthyes: Gobiidae) from the Syrian coast (Eastern Mediterranean Sea)

A specimen of slender goby Gobius geniporus Valenciennes, 1837 was caught on 21 February 2021, from the Syrian coast at a depth of 13 m. This specimen measured 87 mm in total length and weighed 6.89 g. The present finding represents the first record of G. geniporus from the Syrian coast and confirms the species occurrence in the Levant Basin, eastern region from the Mediterranean Sea.

An updated checklist of seaweeds and seagrasses from the Syrian Mediterranean Sea coast

Abstract In the last two decades, major taxonomic modifications have taken place on marine macroalgae with important changes at the genera level and discovery of cryptic species worldwide. These updates have an important role by serving as a baseline for future ecological interpretations related to on-going climate changes in the marine environment. Hence, this study aimed to elaborate a comprehensive and revised checklist of seaweeds and seagrasses reported in the literature over the years for Syrian Mediterranean Sea shorelines. It was found that the marine flora is quite diverse with a recounted total of 290 species of which 52 are Chlorophyta, 178 Rhodophyta and 60 Ochrophyta (Phaeophyceae). The Syrian shores also host five marine angiosperms (seagrasses), even though Zostera marina Linnaeus has been unaccounted for in recent years. This study will further contribute to a better understanding of seaweed distribution within the Levant basin.