Book contents
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Quaternary of the Levant
- Part I: The Evolution of Current Landscapes and Basins
- Part II: Palaeoclimates
- 8 Chronologies of Late Quaternary Coral Reefs and Lake Sediments from the Red Sea and Dead Sea Rift Valley
- 9 Sedimentology of the Lacustrine Formations in the Dead Sea Basin
- 10 The Amora Formation, Dead Sea Basin
- 11 The Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Samra Formation
- 12 Lake Lisan
- 13 Dead Sea Lake Level Changes and Levant Palaeoclimate
- 14 Pliocene–Pleistocene Water Bodies and Associated Deposits in Southern Israel and Southern Jordan
- 15 Quaternary Evolution of Caves and Associated Palaeoenvironments of the Southern Levant
- 16 Geoarchaeology of Levantine Prehistoric Caves
- 17 Climate and Environment Reconstructions Based on Speleothems from the Levant
- 18 Speleothems from Lebanon
- 19 Late Quaternary Palaeoenvironments in Northern Levant (Lebanon and Syria)
- Part III: Archaeology of Human Evolution
- Part IV: Palaeoecology
- Part V: Quaternary Geomorphology
- Part VI: Humans in the Levant
- Index
- Plate section
- References
18 - Speleothems from Lebanon
from Part II: - Palaeoclimates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2017
Book contents
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Quaternary of the Levant
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The Quaternary of the Levant
- Part I: The Evolution of Current Landscapes and Basins
- Part II: Palaeoclimates
- 8 Chronologies of Late Quaternary Coral Reefs and Lake Sediments from the Red Sea and Dead Sea Rift Valley
- 9 Sedimentology of the Lacustrine Formations in the Dead Sea Basin
- 10 The Amora Formation, Dead Sea Basin
- 11 The Stratigraphy and Chronology of the Samra Formation
- 12 Lake Lisan
- 13 Dead Sea Lake Level Changes and Levant Palaeoclimate
- 14 Pliocene–Pleistocene Water Bodies and Associated Deposits in Southern Israel and Southern Jordan
- 15 Quaternary Evolution of Caves and Associated Palaeoenvironments of the Southern Levant
- 16 Geoarchaeology of Levantine Prehistoric Caves
- 17 Climate and Environment Reconstructions Based on Speleothems from the Levant
- 18 Speleothems from Lebanon
- 19 Late Quaternary Palaeoenvironments in Northern Levant (Lebanon and Syria)
- Part III: Archaeology of Human Evolution
- Part IV: Palaeoecology
- Part V: Quaternary Geomorphology
- Part VI: Humans in the Levant
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
The Jeita and Kanaan caves are situated on the western flank of Mount Lebanon at ~100 meters above sea level. A 1.2 meters stalagmite from the Jeita cave is ~12 to ~1 ka. The stalagmite retrieved from Kanaan cave is ~ 130-85 ka with regular laminations and a ~45° tilt at ~105 ka. d18O and d13C compositions of these stalagmites show wet early Holocene and dryer interval at ~6 ka and suggests a similar but less severe change at ~126 ka. The latter seems to have less impact on the vegetation than the change at ~6 ka. The d18O changes in the stalagmites seem to reflect a source effect of the δ18O Mediterranean Sea surface water composition. Both speleothems demonstrate wet conditions during the last glacial-Interglacial transitions in this part of the Levant, in contrast with a more arid Dead Sea basin. Different behaviour of the carbon isotopic composition in Lebanese and the Soreq and Peqiin Caves remains puzzling and raises questions about the climate pattern resulting from the confluence of different systems in the East Mediterranean area.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Quaternary of the LevantEnvironments, Climate Change, and Humans, pp. 165 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2017
References
Almogi-Labin, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Shriki, D. et al. 2009. Climate variability during the last 90 ka on the southern and northern Levantine basin as evident from marine records and speleothems. Quaternary Science Reviews 28: 2882–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayalon, A., Bar-Matthews, M. & Kaufman, A. 2002. Climatic conditions during marine isotopic stage 6 in the eastern Mediterranean region as evident from the isotopic composition of speleothems: Soreq Cave, Israel. Geology 30: 303–6.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayalon, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Frumkin, A. & Matthews, A. 2013. Last Glacial warm events on Mount Hermon: The southern extension of the Alpine karst range in the east Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews 59: 43–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M. 2014. History of water in the Middle East and North Africa. In Treatise on Geochemistry, ed. Holland, H.D. & Turekian, K.K.. Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 109–28.Google Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A. & Kaufman, A. 1997. Late Quaternary paleoclimate in the eastern Mediterranean region from stable isotope ana-lysis of speleothems at Soreq cave, Israel. Quaternary Research 47: 155–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Kaufman, A. & Wasserburg, G.J. 1999. The eastern Mediterranean paleoclimate as a reflection of regional events: Soreq Cave, Israel. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 166: 85–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A. & Kaufman, A. 2000. Timing and hydrological conditions of Sapropel events in the eastern Mediterranean, as evident from speleothems, Soreq Cave, Israel. Chemical Geology 169: 145–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Gilmour, M., Matthews, M. & Hawkesworth, C. 2003. Sea–land isotopic relationships from planktonic foraminifera and speleothems in the eastern Mediterranean region and their implications for paleorainfall during interglacial interval, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 67: 3181–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, A. & Loutre, M.F. 1991. Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years, Quaternary Science Reviews 10: 297–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, H., Sinhac, A., Verheyden, S. et al. 2015. The climate variability in northern Levant over the past 20,000 years. Geophysical Research Letters 42: 8641–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
deMenocal, P.B. 2001. Cultural response to climate change during the Late Holocene. Science 292: 667–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Develle, A.L., Gasse, F., Vidal, L. et al. 2011. A 250 ka sedimentary record from a small karstic lake in the Northern Levant (Yammoûneh, Lebanon): Paleoclimatic implications. Palaeogeography, Palaeo-climatology, Palaeoecology 305: 10–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubertret, L. 1975. Introduction à la carte géologique au 1/50 000 du Liban. Notes et Mémoires du Moyen-Orient 13: 345–403.Google Scholar
Emeis, K.-C., Struck, U., Schulz, H.-M. et al. 2000. Temperature and salinity variations of the Mediterranean Sea surface waters over the last 16,000 years from records of planktonic stable oxygen isotopes and alkenone unsaturation ratios. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 158: 259–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emeis, K.C., Schulz, H., Struck, U. et al. 2003. Eastern Mediterranean surface water temperatures and δ18O during deposition of sapropels in the late Quaternary. Paleoceanography 18: 1005.CrossRefGoogle 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 neighbouring deserts. Global Planetary Change 60: 165–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A., Ford, D.C. & Schwarcz, H.P. 1999. Continental oxygen isotopic record of the last 170,000 years in Jerusalem. Quaternary Research 51: 317–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A., Ford, D.C. & Schwarcz, H. 2000. Paleoclimate and vegetation of the Last Glacial cycles in Jerusalem from a speleothem record. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 14: 863–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasse, F., Vidal, L., Develle, A.-L. & Van Campo, E. 2011. Hydrological variability in the northern Levant: A 250 ka multi-proxy record from the Yammoûneh (Lebanon) sedimentary sequence. Climatic Past 7: 1261–84.Google Scholar
Gasse, F., Vidal, L., Van Campo, E. et al. 2015. Hydroclimatic changes in northern Levant over the past 400,000 years. Quaternary Science Review 111: 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, K.M., Rohling, E.J., Bar-Matthews, M. et al. 2012. Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150 kyr. Nature 491: 744–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kallel, N., Duplessy, J-C., Labeyrie, L. et al. 2000. Mediterranean pluvial periods and sapropel formation during the last 200,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 157: 45–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolodny, Y., Stein, M. & Machlus, M. 2005. Sea–rain–lake relation in the Last Glacial East Mediterranean revealed by d18O–d13C in Lake Lisan aragonites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 69: 4055–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lisker, S., Vaks, A. & Bar-Matthews, M. 2010. Late Pleistocene palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Dead Sea area (Israel), based on speleothems and cave stromatolites. Quaternary Science Reviews 29: 1201–11.Google Scholar
Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Heumann, G., Stockhecke, M. & Tzedakis, P.C. 2014. A 600,000 years long continental pollen record from Lake Van, eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Quaternary Science Reviews 104: 30–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migowski, C., Stein, M., Prasad, S., Negendank, J.F.W. & Agnon, A. 2006. Holocene climate variability and cultural evolution in the Near East from the Dead Sea sedimentary record. Quaternary Research 66: 421–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nader, F.H. 2004. The Jiita Cave (Lebanon). In Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science, ed. Gunn, J.. New York – London: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 463–4.Google Scholar
Nehme, C., Verheyden, S., Noble, S.R. et al. 2015. Paleoclimate reconstruction in the Levant region from the petrography and the geochemistry of a MIS 5 stalagmite from the Kanaan Cave, Lebanon. Climate of the Past Discussions 11: 3241–75. doi:10.5194/cpd-11–3241–2015.Google Scholar
Neugebauer, I., Schwab, M.J., Waldmann, N.D. et al. 2015. Hydroclimatic variability in the Levant during the early last glacial (∼ 117–75 ka) derived from micro-facies analyses of deep Dead Sea sediments. Climate of the Past Discussions 11: 3625–63.Google Scholar
NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project) Members 2004. High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period. Nature 431: 147–51.Google Scholar
Petit-Maire, N., Carbonel, P., Reyss, J.L. et al. 2010. A vast Eemian palaeo-lake in Southern Jordan (29°N). Global and Planetary Change 72: 368–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohling, E.J., Cane, T.R., Cooke, S. et al. 2002. African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 202: 61–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohling, E.J., Sprovieri, M., Cane, T.R. et al. 2004. Reconstructing past planktic foraminiferal habitats using stable isotope data: A case history for Mediterranean sapropel S5. Marine Micropaleontology 50: 89–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossignol-Strick, M. 1999. The Holocene climatic optimum and pollen records of sapropel 1 in the eastern Mediterranean, 9000–6000 BP. Quaternary Science Reviews 18: 515–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saaroni, H., Ziv, B., Bitan, A. & Alpert, P. 1998. Easterly wind storms over Israel. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 59: 61–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmiedl, G., Mitschele, A., Beck, S. et al. 2003. Benthic foraminiferal record of ecosystem variability in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during times of sapropel S5 and S6 deposition. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 190: 139–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scrivner, A.E., Vance, D. & Rohling, E.J. 2004. New neodymium isotope data quantify Nile involvement in Mediterranean anoxic episodes. Geology 32: 565–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staubwasser, M. & Weiss, H. 2006. Holocene climate and cultural evolution in late prehistoric–early historic West Asia. Quaternary Research 66: 372–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stockhecke, M., Sturm, M., Brunner, I. et al. 2014. Sedimentary evolution and environmental history of Lake Van (Turkey) over the past 600,000 years. Sedimentology 61: 1830-61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torfstein, A., Goldstein, S.L., Kushnir, Y. et al. 2015. Dead Sea drawdown and monsoonal impacts in the Levant during the last interglacial. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 412: 235–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaks, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A. et al. 2006. Paleoclimate and location of the border between Mediterranean climate region and the Saharo-Arabian desert as revealed by speleothems from the northern Negev Desert, Israel. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 249: 384–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaks, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Matthews, A., Ayalon, A. & Frumkin, A. 2013. Middle–Late Quaternary paleoclimate of northern margins of the Saharan–Arabian Desert: Reconstruction from speleothems of Negev Desert, Israel. Quaternary Science Reviews 29: 2647–62.Google Scholar
Verheyden, S., Nader, F.H., Cheng, H.J., Edwards, L.R. & Swennen, R. 2008. Paleoclimate reconstruction in the Levant region from the geochemistry of a Holocene stalagmite from the Jeita Cave, Lebanon. Quaternary Research 70: 368–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldmann, N., Stein, M., Ariztegui, D. & Starinsky, A. 2009. Stratigraphy, depositional environments and level reconstruction of the last interglacial Lake Samra in the Dead Sea basin. Quaternary Research 72: 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walley, C.D. 2001. The Lebanon passive margin and the evolution of the Levantine Neotethys. In Peri-Tethys Memoir 6: Peri Tethyan Rift/Wrench Basins and Passive Margins, ed. Ziegler, P.A., Cavazza, W., Robertson, A.H.F. & Crasquin-Soleau, S., Mémoire du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 86. Paris: MNHN, pp. 407–39.Google Scholar
Ziegler, M., Tuenter, E. & Lourens, L.J. 2010. The precession phase of the boreal summer monsoon as viewed from the eastern Mediterranean (ODP Site 968). Quaternary Science Review 29: 1481–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.