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12 - Lake Lisan

The Archive of the Last Glacial Levant's Hydroclimatology

from Part II: - Palaeoclimates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

By
Mordechai Stein  and
Steven L. Goldstein
Edited by
Yehouda Enzel  and
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Lake Lisan filled the Dead Sea basin and the Jordan Valley during the last glacial (~70-14 ka). The lake level changed from ~160 to ~330 m below mean sea level, reflecting the hydroclimatic conditions in its large watershed. Large amounts of freshwater loaded with bi-carbonate and sulfate along with fine particles of desert dust origin entered the lake during the high-stand cold glacial stages (e.g. MIS4 and 2), depositing sequences of primary aragonite and silty-detritus laminae. The Lisan Formation in deep Dead Sea cores reveal significant freshening of the lower brine by entering freshwater during the glacial period. Abrupt level drops accompanied by massive deposition of gypsum that reflect significant arid conditions in the lake’s watershed interrupted these limnological conditions. The lake-level drops coincided with times of Heinrich events in the North Atlantic (NA) calling for direct modulation of the regional hydrology by NA climate. This modulation is also reflected in shorter, decadal to annual climate cycles that are recovered from the annually deposited aragonite-silty detritus sequences.

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Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
 , pp. 107 - 114
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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