Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T20:55:03.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Tectonic and Physiographic Settings of the Levant

from Part I: - The Evolution of Current Landscapes and Basins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Yehouda Enzel
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ofer Bar-Yosef
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

This chapter is a broad overview of the main physiographic elements of the Levant and discusses their origin, evolution and relations to the tectonic history of the region. This relatively small region of ~800 x 250 km, from the Lebanon Mountains to tip of the Sinai Peninsula is situated at the northeastern African and northwestern Arabian plates and borders the eastern Mediterranean Levantine basin. It exhibits physiographic characteristics such as 3000 m high mountain ranges, near deep structural depressions at below sea level. These characteristics reflect the combined effect of tectonic and landscape evolution. Although the present physiography of the Levant evolved mainly since the late Miocene, it integrates older features developed during previous tectonic events but are still pronounced in the present landscape due to their rejuvenation. In the last 40 Ma, the region became gradually active as part of the development of a plate boundary dissecting the Levant along the Dead Sea transform. The present-day physiography is responding to differential tectonics - compressional versus tensional provinces.
Type
Chapter
Information
Quaternary of the Levant
Environments, Climate Change, and Humans
, pp. 3 - 16
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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

Avni, Y. 1993. The structural and landscape evolution of the western Ramon structure. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 42: 177–87.Google Scholar
Avni, Y. 1998. Paleogeography and tectonics of the central Negev and the Dead Sea Rift western margin during the late Neogene and Quaternary. Israel Geological Survey Report GSI/24/98 [Hebrew, English abstract].Google Scholar
Avni, Y. & Zilberman, E. 2007. Landscape evolution triggered by neotectonics in the Sede Zin region, Central Negev, Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 55: 189208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avni, Y., Bartov, Y., Garfunkel, Z. & Ginat, H. 2000. Evolution of the Paran drainage basin and its relations to the Plio-Pleistocene history of the Arava Rift western margin, Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 49: 215–38.Google Scholar
Avni, Y., Bartov, Y., Garfunkel, Z. & Ginat, H. 2001. The Arava Formation – A Pliocene sequence in the Arava Valley and its western margin, southern Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 50: 101–20.Google Scholar
Avni, Y., Segev, A. & Ginat, H. 2012. Oligocene regional denudation of the northern Afar dome: Pre and syn breakup stages of the Afro-Arabian plate. Geological Society of America Bulletin 124 (11/12): 1871–897.Google Scholar
Baker, J., Snee, L. & Menzies, M. 1996. A brief Oligocene period of flood volcanism in Yemen: Implication for the duration and rate of continental flood volcanism at the Afro-Arabian triple junction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 138: 3955.Google Scholar
Bar, O. 2009. The shaping of the continental margin of central Israel since the Late Eocene – tectonics, morphology and stratigraphy. Israel Geological Survey Report GSI/32/2009 (Hebrew, English abstract).Google Scholar
Bartov, Y. 1974. A Structural and Paleogeographical Study of the Central Sinai Faults and Domes. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [Hebrew, English abstract].Google Scholar
Bartov, Y., Frieslander, Y., Avni, Y. et al. 2004. Possible Precambrian origin for the Plio-Quaternary NNE trending fault system in the southern Negev – evidence from field mapping and geophysical surveys. Israel Geological Society Annual Meeting Abstracts, p. 13.Google Scholar
Bender, F. 1974. Geology of Jordan. Berlin: Borntraeger.Google Scholar
Bentor, Y.K. 1985. The crustal evolution of the Arabian–Nubian Massif with special reference to the Sinai Peninsula. Precambrian Research 28: 174.Google Scholar
Bosworth, W., Huchon, P. & McClay, K. 2005. The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Basins. Journal of African Earth Sciences 43: 334–78.Google Scholar
Calvo, R. 2002. Stratigraphy and petrology of the Hazeva Formation in the Arava and Negev: Implications for the development of sedimentary basins and morphotectonics of the Dead Sea Rift valley. Geological Survey of Israel Report GSI/22/02.Google Scholar
Cloos, H. 1953. Conversation with the Earth. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Crouvi, O., Amit, R., Enzel, Y., Porat, N. & Sandler, A. 2008. Sand dunes as a major proximal dust source for late Pleistocene loess in the Negev Desert, Israel. Quaternary Research 70: 275–82.Google Scholar
Crouvi, O., Amit, R., Porat, N. et al. 2009. Significance of primary hill top loess in reconstructing dust chronology, accretion rates, and sources: An example from the Negev Desert, Israel. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 114: F02017.Google Scholar
Crouvi, O., Amit, R., Enzel, Y. & Gillespie, A.R. 2010. Active sand seas and the formation of desert loess. Quaternary Science Reviews 29: 20872098.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jaeger, C.H. & De Dapper, M. 2002. Tectonic control in the geomorphologic development of the Wadi el-Mujib canyon (Jordan). In From Continental Extension to Collision: Africa–Europe Interaction; The Dead Sea Rift and Analogue Natural Laboratories, ed. Cloetingh, S.A.P.L. & Ben-Avraham, Z.. European Geosciences Union, Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series 2. Katlenburg-Lindau: Copernicus, pp. 8394.Google Scholar
Dubertret, L. 1955. Carte Geologique du Liban. Beirut: Lebanese Ministry of Public Works.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Amit, R., Dayan, U. et al. 2008. The climatic and physiographic controls of the eastern Mediterranean over the Late Pleistocene climates in the southern Levant and its neighboring deserts. Global and Planetary Change 60: 165–92.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Amit, R., Crouvi, O. & Porat, N. 2010. Abrasion-derived sediments under intensified winds at the latest Pleistocene leading edge of the advancing Sinai–Negev erg. Quaternary Research 74: 121–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farr, T.G., Rosen, P.A., Caro, E. et al. 2007. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Reviews in Geophysics 45: RG2004. doi:10.1029/2005RG000183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinstein, S., Kohn, B.P., Eyal, M. et al. 2004. Denudation history of the eastern flank of the Dead Sea Rift, southwestern Jordan: Evidence from low temperature thermochronology. 10th International Conference on Fission Track Dating and Thermochronology, Amsterdam. Abstract, p. 69.Google Scholar
Feinstein, S., Eyal, M., Kohn, B.P. et al. 2013. Uplift and denudation history of the eastern Dead Sea Rift flank, SW Jordan: Evidence from apatite fission track thermochronometry. Tectonics 32: 116. doi:10.1002/tect.20082.Google Scholar
Freund, R. 1970. Plate tectonics of Red Sea and East Africa. Nature 228: 453–8.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1964. Tectonic Problems along the Ramon. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [Hebrew].Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1970. The Tectonics of the Western Margins of the Southern Arava: A Contribution to the Understanding of Rifting. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. [Hebrew, English abstract].Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1978. The Negev – regional synthesis of sedimentary basins. 10th International Sedimentology Congress, Jerusalem Guidebook 1: 35101.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1981. Internal structure of the Dead Sea leaky transform (rift) in relation to plate kinematics. Tectonophysics 80: 81108.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1988. Relation between continental rifting and uplifting: Evidence from the Suez rift and northern Red Sea. Tectonophysics 150: 3349.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1998. Constraints on the origin and history of the eastern Mediterranean basin. Tectonophysics 298: 535.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 1999. History and paleogeography during the Pan-African orogeny to stable platform transition: Reappraisal of the evidence from the Elat area and the northern Arabian-Nubian Shield. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 48: 135–57.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. 2001. The nature and history of motion along the Dead Sea Transform (Rift). In The Jordan Rift Valley, ed. Horowitz, A.. Rotterdam: Balkema Publishers, pp. 627–51.Google Scholar
Garfunkel, Z., Zak, I. & Freund, R. 1981. Active faulting in the Dead Sea Rift. Tectonophysics 80: 126.Google Scholar
George, R., Rogers, N. & Kelley, S. 1998. Earliest magmatism in Ethiopia: Evidence for two mantle plumes in one flood basalts province. Geology 26: 923–26.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez, F., Meghraoui, M., Darkal, A.N. et al. 2003. Holocene faulting and earthquake recurrence along the Serghaya branch of the Dead Sea fault system in Syria and Lebanon. Geophysical International Journal 153: 658–74.Google Scholar
Gomez, F., Nemer, T., Tabet, C. et al. 2007. Restraining bend of the Dead Sea fault (Lebanon and SW Syria): Strain partitioning of active transpression within the Lebanese. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 290: 285303.Google Scholar
Guiraud, R. & Bosworth, W. 1997. Senonian basin inversion and rejuven-ation of rifting in Africa and Arabia: Synthesis and implications to plate-scale tectonics. Tectonophysics 282: 3982.Google Scholar
Guralnik, B., Matmon, A., Avni, Y. & Fink, D. 2010. 10Be exposure ages of ancient desert pavements reveal Quaternary evolution of the Dead Sea drainage basin and rift margin tilting. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 290(1): 132–41.Google Scholar
Gvirtzman, G. & Buchbinder, B. 1969. Outcrops of Neogene formations in the central and southern coastal plain, Hashephela and Be'er Sheva regions, Israel. Israel Geological Survey Bulletin 50: 73.Google Scholar
Hofmann, C., Courtillot, V., Feraud, G. et al. 1997. Timing of the Ethiopian flood basalt event and implications for plume birth and global change. Nature 389: 838–41.Google Scholar
Horowitz, A. 1979. The Quaternary of Israel. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, A. 2001. The Jordan Rift Valley. Rotterdam: Balkema Publishers.Google Scholar
Ilani, S., Harlavan, J., Tarawneh, K. et al. 2001. New K–Ar ages of basalts from the Harrat Ash–Shaam volcanic field in Jordan: Implications for the span and duration of the upper-mantle beneath the west Arabian plate. Geology 29: 171–74.Google Scholar
Joffe, S. & Garfunkel, Z. 1987. Plate kinematics of the circum Red Sea area: A re-evaluating. Tectonophysics 141: 522.Google Scholar
Joseph-Chai, N., Haviv, I., Eyal, Y., Weinberger, R. & Benjamini, H., 2015. The structure, uplift stages and the exhumation pattern of the Hermon ridge. In: Field Trip Guidebook, Geological Society of Israel Annual Meeting, ed. Zaletkin, O, Wienstein, Y & Kazir, Y, pp. 5592.Google Scholar
Kazmin, V.G. 2002. The late Paleozoic to Cainozoic intraplate deformation in North Arabia: A response to plate boundary-forces. In From Continental Extension to Collision: Africa–Europe Interaction; The Dead Sea Rift and Analogue Natural Laboratories, ed. Cloetingh, S.A.P.L. & Ben-Avraham, Z.. Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series 2. Katlenburg-Lindau: Copernicus, pp. 123–38.Google Scholar
Krenkel, E. 1924. Der Syrische Bogen. Zentralblatt fuer Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaeontologie 9: 274–81.Google Scholar
Lyakhovsky, V., Segev, A., Schattner, U. & Weinberger, R. 2012. Deformation and seismicity associated with continental rift zones propagating toward continental margins. Geochemical Geophysical Geosystem 13(1): Q01012.Google Scholar
Matmon, A., Enzel, Y., Zilberman, E. & Heimann, A. 1999. Late Pliocene to Pleistocene reversal of drainage systems in northern Israel: Tectonic implications. Geomorphology 28: 4359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matmon, A., Wdowinski, S. & Hall, J. 2003. Morphological and structural relations in the Galilee extensional domain, northern Israel. Tectonophysics 371: 223–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matmon, A., Simhai, O., Amit, R. et al. 2009. Desert pavement-coated surfaces in extreme desert present the longest-lived landforms on Earth. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 121: 68897.Google Scholar
Matmon, A., Fink, D., Davis, M. et al. 2014. Unraveling rift margin evolution and escarpment development ages along the Dead Sea fault using cosmogenic burial ages. Quaternary Research 82: 281–95.Google Scholar
Picard, L. 1943. Structure and evolution of Palestine with comparative notes on neighboring countries. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Geology Department Bulletin 4: 134.Google Scholar
Pik, R., Marty, B., Carignan, J. & Lave, J. 2003. Stability of the Upper Nile drainage network (Ethiopia) deduced from (U–Th)/He thermochronometry: Implications for uplift and erosion of the Afar plume dome. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 215: 7388.Google Scholar
Quennell, A.M. 1958. The structural and geomorphic evolution of the Dead Sea Rift. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 114: 124.Google Scholar
Ryb, U., Mattews, A., Erel, Y., Gordon, G., Anbar, A. & Avni, Y. 2009. Iron mineralization along the northern Negev anticlines: Sources, timing, and paleogeographical implications. Israel Geological Society Annual Meeting abstracts, p. 112.Google Scholar
Schattner, U. & Ben-Avraham, Z. 2007. Transform margin of the northern Levant, eastern Mediterranean: From formation to reactivation. Tectonics 26: TC5020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schattner, U., Ben-Avraham, Z., Lazar, M. & Huebscher, C. 2006. Tectonic isolation of the Levant basin offshore Galilee–Lebanon – effects of the Dead Sea fault plate boundary on the Levant continental margin, eastern Mediterranean. Journal of Structural Geology 28: 2049–66.Google Scholar
Segev, A. 2002. Floodbasalts, continental break up and the dispersal of Gondwana: Evidence for periodic migration of up-welling mantle (plumes). In From Continental Extension to Collision: Africa–Europe Interaction; The Dead Sea Rift and Analogue Natural Laboratories, ed. Cloetingh, S.A.P.L. & Ben-Avraham, Z., Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series 2. Katlenburg-Lindau: Copernicus, pp. 171–91.Google Scholar
Segev, A. & Rybakov, M. 2010. Effects of Cretaceous plume and convergence, and Early Tertiary tectonomagmatic quiescence on the central and southern Levant continental margin. Journal of the Geological Society of London 167: 731–49.Google Scholar
Segev, A., Goldshmidt, V. & Rybakov, M. 1999. Late Precambrian–Cambrian tectonic setting of the crystalline basement in the northern Arabian–Nubian shield as derived from gravity and magnetic data: Basin-and-range characteristics. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 48: 159–78.Google Scholar
Segev, A., Lyakhovsky, V. & Weinberger, R. 2014. Continental transform–rift interaction adjacent to a continental margin: The Levant case study. Earth-Science Reviews 139: 83103.Google Scholar
Sneh, A. & Weinberger, R. 2003. Geology of the Metulla quadrangle, northern Israel: Implications for the offset along the Dead Sea Rift. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 52: 123–38.Google Scholar
Sneh, A., Bartov, Y., Weissbrod, T., Rosensaft, M. & Hall, J.K. 2000. Geological shaded-relief map of Israel and environs, 1:500,000. Israel Geological Survey Map. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Stein, M. & Goldstein, S.L. 1996. From plume head to continental lithosphere in the Arabian–Nubian shield. Nature 382: 773–8.Google Scholar
Steinitz, G. & Bartov, Y. 1991. The Miocene–Pliocene history of the Dead Sea segment of the rift in light of K–Ar ages of basalts. Israel Journal of Earth-Sciences 40: 199208.Google Scholar
Walley, C.D. 1998. Some outstanding issues in the geology of Lebanon and their importance in the tectonic evolution of the Levantine region. Tectonophysics 298: 3762.Google Scholar
Wdowinski, S. & Zilberman, E. 1997. Systematic analyses of the large-scale topography and structure across the Dead Sea Rift. Tectonics 16: 409–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberger, R., Gross, M.R. & Sneh, A. 2009. Evolving deformation along a transform plate boundary: Example from the Dead Sea fault in northern Israel. Tectonics 28: TC5005.Google Scholar
Weissbrod, T. 2002. Stratigraphy and correlation of the Lower Cretaceous exposures across the Dead Sea Transform with emphasis on tracing the Amir Formation in Jordan. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 51: 5578.Google Scholar
Weissbrod, T. 2005. The Paleozoic in Israel and Environs. In Geological Framework of the Levant: Volume II: Levantine Basin and Israel, ed. Krasheninnikov, V.A., Hall, J.K., Hirsch, F., Benjamini, C. & Flexer, A.. Jerusalem: Historical Productions – Hall, pp. 283316.Google Scholar
White, R.S. & McKenzie, D. 1989. Magmatism at rift zones: The generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts. Journal of Geophysical Research 94: 7685–729.Google Scholar
Zeyen, H., Volker, F., Wehrle, V. et al. 1997. Styles of continental rifting: Crust–mantle detachment and mantle plumes. Tectonophysics 278: 329–52.Google Scholar
Zilberman, E. 1992. Remnants of Miocene landscape in the central and northern Negev and their paleogeographic implications. Israel Geological Survey Bulletin 83: 54.Google Scholar
Zilberman, E. 2000. The formation of the ‘Makhteshim’ – unique erosion cirques in the Negev, southern Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Science 49: 127–42.Google Scholar
Zilberman, E. & Avni, Y. 2006. The Hemar Conglomerate – a remnant of a middle–late Miocene cross-rift stream. Geological Society of Israel Annual Meeting Abstracts, p. 138.Google Scholar
Zilberman, E., Baer, G., Avni, Y. & Feigin, D. 1996. Pliocene fluvial systems and tectonics in the central Negev, southern Israel. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 45: 113–26.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×