Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T15:37:11.584Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Load Structure Seismites in the Dead Sea Area, Israel: Chronological Benchmarking with 14C Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

D Bowman
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Beer Sheva, P.O. Box 653, Israel 84105. Email: dbowman@bgumail.bgu.ac.il.
H J Bruins
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Social Studies Unit, Department of Man in the Desert, Sede Boker Campus, Israel 84990
J van der Plicht
Affiliation:
Centre for Isotope Research, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Groningen University, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake located in the seismically active zone of the Syro–African Rift Valley. The water level of the Dead Sea has been receding dramatically during the last decades, resulting in significant entrenchment of wadis towards its shores. Exposed sections in fan deltas reveal abruptly changing facies of alluvial fan, beach, and shallow lacustrine environments. Our study focuses on soft sediment deformations of the load-structure type. Though of limited lateral extent, their field characteristics concur with the widely accepted criteria that define seismites. This paper demonstrates the potential of load-structures as seismic-chronological benchmarks through radiocarbon dating. We present the first evidence of 14C correlation between two types of seismites in different locations: load structure and mixed layer.

Type
Near East Chronology: Archaeology and Environment
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Aerts-Bijma, AT, van der Plicht, J, Meijer, HAJ. 2001. Automatic AMS Sample combustion and CO2 collection. Radiocarbon. This issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amiran, DHK, Arieh, E, Turcotte, T. 1994. Earthquakes in Israel and adjacent areas: macroseismic observations since 100 B.C.E. The Israel Exploration Journal 44: 261305.Google Scholar
Arvanitakis, GL. 1903. Essai sur le climat de Jerusalem. Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte 4:178–89.Google Scholar
Begin, ZB, Broecker, W, Buchbinder, B, Druckman, Y, Kaufman, A, Magaritz, M, Neev, D. 1985. Dead Sea and Lake Lisan levels in the last 30,000 years. Geological Survey of Israel, Report 29/85. 18 p.Google Scholar
Bowman, D. 1971. Geomorphology of the shore terraces of the late Pleistocene Lisan lake (Israel). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 9:183209.Google Scholar
Bowman, D. 1988. The declining but non–rejuvenating base level-the Lisan Lake, the dead Sea area, Israel. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 13:239–49.Google Scholar
Bowman, D, Banet–Davidovich, D, Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2000. Dead Sea shoreline facies with seismically–induced soft–sediment deformation structures, Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 49:197214.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1999. OxCal Program version 3.3. University of Oxford, Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ. 1994. Comparative chronology of climatic and human history in the southern Levant from the late Chalcolithic to the Early Arab Period. In: Bar-Yosef, O, Kra, R, editors. Late Quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tucson. Radiocarbon, University of Arizona. p 301–14.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, Mook, WG. 1989. The need for a calibrated radiocarbon chronology of Near Eastern archaeology. Radiocarbon 31(3):1019–29.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 1996. The Exodus enigma. Nature 382:213–14.Google Scholar
Dever, WG. 1992. A case–study in biblical archaeology: the earthquake of ca. 760 BCE. Eretz–Israel 23:2735.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y, Kadan, G, Eyal, Y. 2000. Holocene earthquakes inferred from a fan–delta sequence in the Dead Sea graben. Quaternary Research 53:3448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A, Magaritz, M, Carmi, I, Zak, I. 1991. The Holocene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. Holocene 1:191200.Google Scholar
Josephus, . Antiquities X V, V, 121147. War, I, XIX, 370–80.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A, Yechieli, Y, Gardosh, M. 1992. Reevaluation of the lake sediments chronology in the Dead Sea basin, Israel, based on new 230Th/U dates. Quaternary Research 38:292304.Google Scholar
Ken-Tor, R, Agnon, A, Enzel, Y, Marco, S, Negendank, J, Stein, M. 2000. High–resolution geological record of historic earthquakes in the Dead Sea basin. 17th International radiocarbon conference, Israel, p 55. Submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research.Google Scholar
Ken-Tor, R. 2001. Precision of calibrated radiocarbon ages of historic earthquakes in the Dead Sea basin. Radiocarbon. This issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, C. 1982. Morphological evidence of lake level changes, western shore of the Dead Sea. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 31:6794.Google Scholar
Manning, SW. 1999. A test of time–the volcano of Thera and the chronology and history of the Aegean and east Mediterranean in the mid second millennium BC. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Marco, S, Agnon, A. 1995. Prehistoric earthquake deformations near Masada, Dead Sea graben. Geology 23(8):695–8.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marco, S, Stein, M, Agnon, A, Ron, H. 1996. Long–term earthquake clustering, a 50,000 year paleoseismic record in the Dead Sea graben. Journal of Geophysical Research 101:6179–91.Google Scholar
Mook, WG, Waterbolk, HT. 1985. Handbook for Archaeologists. Nr 3. Radiocarbon dating. Strasbourg: European Science Foundation.Google Scholar
Rahmani, LY. 1964. Jason's Tomb. Atiqot 4 (Hebrew Series). p 30.Google Scholar
Sieberg, A. 1932. Untersuchungen uber Erdbeben und Bruchschollenbau im ostlichen Mittelmeergebiet. Denkschriften der medizinisch–naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft zu Jena 18. p 159273.Google Scholar
Sneh, A. 1979. Late Pleistocene fan deltas along the Dead Sea Rift. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 49:541–52.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, van der Plicht, J, editors. 1998. Intcal 98: calibration issue. Radiocarbon 40(3).Google Scholar
Turcotte, T, Arie, E. 1988. Catalog of earthquakes in and around Israel. Preliminary safety analysis report, Israel Electric Corporation Ltd. Appendix 2.5A.Google Scholar
van der Plicht, J. 1996. Radiocarbon dating in Groningen: advances in gas counting and AMS, University of Groningen.Google Scholar
Willis, B. 1928. Earthquakes in the Holy Land. Bulletin of Seismological Society of America 18:73103.Google Scholar
Yechieli, Y, Magaritz, M, Levy, Y, Weber, U, Kafri, U, Woelfli, W, Bonani, G. 1993. Late Quaternary geological history of the Dead Sea area, Israel. Quaternary Research 39:5967.Google Scholar