Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T14:24:59.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Determining the Exposure Age of a Karst Landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Amos Frumkin*
Affiliation:
Cave Research Section, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

Abstract

An extensive salt karst system has developed in Mount Sedom salt diapir, Israel, during the Holocene. Multilevel vadose caves were 14C dated using wood fragments embedded in alluvial deposits. The oldest date of each cave is used to constrain the age of the salt exposure. The upper portion of the southeastern escarpment was the first to rise above base level ∼7100 yr B.P. Caves in the surrounding area indicate gradual landscape exposure around this initial karstified area between 7000 and 4000 yr B.P. The northern part of the mountain experienced a similar exposure history, lagging some 3000 yr after the southern part. This lag may be attributed to the narrow width of the diapir in the north, which increases viscous drag at the borders of the rising diapir.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, T.C., Briffa, K.R., and Coope, G. R. (1987). Seasonal temperatures in Britain during the past 22,000 yr, reconstructed using beetle remains. Nature 325, 587592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Begin, Z.B., Broecker, W., Buchbinder, B., Druckman, Y., Kaufman, A., Magaritz, M., and Neev, D. (1985). “Dead Sea and Lake Lisan levels in the last 30,000 yr, a preliminary report.” Geological Survey of Israel, report 29/85, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Begin, Z.B., Nathan, Y., and Ehrlich, A. (1980). Stratigraphy and facies distribution in the Lisan Formation—New evidence from the area south of the Dead Sea, Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 29, 182189.Google Scholar
Bowman, D., and Gross, T. (1993). The highest stand of Lake Lisan: Ç150 meter below MSL. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 41, 233237.Google Scholar
Brook, E.J., and Kurz, M. D. (1993). Surface-exposure chronology using in situ cosmogenic 3He in Antarctic quartz sandstone boulders. Quaternary Research 39, 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Druckman, Y., Magaritz, M., and Sneh, A. (1987). The shrinking of Lake Lisan, as reflected by the diagenesis of its marginal oolitic deposits. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 36, 101106.Google Scholar
Farrant, A. R. (1995). Long-term Quaternary uplift rates inferred from limestone caves in Sarawak, Malaysia. Geology 23, 357360.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, D.C., Schwarcz, H.P., Drake, J.J., Gascoyne, M., Harmon, R.S., and Latham, A. G. (1981). Estimates of the age of the existing relief within the southern Rocky Mountains of Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research 13, 110.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A. (1994a). Morphology and development of salt caves. Bulletin of the National Speleological Society 56, 8295.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A. (1994b). Hydrology and denudation rates of halite karst. Journal of Hydrology 162, 171189.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A. (1996). Uplift rate relative to base level of a salt diapir (Dead Sea, Israel), as indicated by cave levels. In “Salt, Tectonics”, (Alsop, I., Blundell, D., and Davison, I., Eds.), Geological Society Special Publication No. 100, pp. 4147. University of London, London.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A., and Ford, D. C. (1995). Rapid entrenchment of stream profiles in the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 20, 139152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A., Magaritz, M., Carmi, I., and Zak, I. (1991). The Holocene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. The Holocene 1, 191200.Google Scholar
Gascoyne, M., Ford, D.C., and Schwarcz, H. P. (1983). Rates of cave and landform development in the Yorkshire Dales from speleothem age data. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 8, 557568.Google Scholar
Gerson, R. (1972). Geomorphic processes of Mount Sdom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (in Hebrew, English abstract), The Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A., Yechieli, Y., and Gardosh, M. (1992). Reevaluation of the lake-sediment chronology in the Dead Sea basin, Israel, based on new 230 Th/U dates. Quaternary Research 38, 292304.Google Scholar
Lerche, I., and O'Brien, J. J. (1987). Modelling of buoyant salt diapirism. In “Dynamical Geology of Salt and Related Structures” (Lerche, I., and O'Brien, J. J., Eds.), pp. 129162. Academic Press, Orlando.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mylroie, J.E., and Carew, J. L. (1987). Field evidence of the minimum time for speleogenesis. National Speleological Society Bulletin 49, 6772.Google Scholar
Nishizumi, K., Kohl, C.P., Arnold, J.R., Dorn, R., Klein, J., Fink, D., Middleton, R., and Lal, D. (1993). Role of in situ cosmogenic nuclides 10Be and 26 Al in the study of diverse geomorphic processes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 18, 407425.Google Scholar
Palmer, A. N. (1991). Origin and morphology of limestone caves. Geological Society of America Bulletin 103, 121.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinlan, J.F., Smith, A.R., and Johnson, K. S. (1986). Gypsum karst and salt karst of the United States. Atti simposio internazionale sul carsismo nelle evaporiti; Le Grotte d'Italia 12, 419420.Google Scholar
Sasowsky, I.D., White, W.B., and Schmidt, V. A. (1995). Determination of stream-incision rate in the Appalachian plateaus by using cave-sediment magnetostratigraphy. Geology 23, 415418.Google Scholar
Vroman, J. (1950/1951). The movement and solution of salt bodies as applied to Mount Sedom. Israel Exploration Journal 1, 185193.Google Scholar
White, W. B. (1988). “Geomorphology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains.” Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Zak, I. (1967). The geology of Mount Sedom. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (in Hebrew, English abstract), The Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Zak, I., and Bentor, Y. K. (1968). Some new data on the salt deposits of the Dead Sea area, Israel. In “Symposium on the Geology of Saline Deposits,” pp. 137146. Unesco, Hannover.Google Scholar