New insights on sediment provenance in the Dead Sea since the last glacial maximum using grain-size distribution

Sedimentary records from the Dead Sea constitute unique paleoclimatic archives that enable investigating the response of environments to climatic changes. Large lake-level fluctuations (>100 m) occurred during the past glacial-interglacial cycles due to reorganizations of the hydroclimatic regime and drastically modified the morphology of the drainage area. We aim here to reconstruct past sedimentary dynamics at times of varying lake level to gain insights into paleoclimate and landscape evolution.For this study, we have compared present-day surface sediments (fluvial and soil sediments) retrieved on both the eastern Jordanian and western shores of the present Dead Sea with downcore sediment archives including the ICDP Dead Sea Deep Drilling Program Site 5017-1. Streams originating from various parts of the watershed can be distinguished by their grain-size distribution, with northern and south-western streams having generally finer grain-size modes when compared with streams from the eastern side. We find that all modes identified in the fluvial sediments were present in the ICDP downcore samples from the last deglaciation, when lake levels were up to 250m higher than today. This suggests that the whole watershed contributed to the sediment input at that time. In contrast, Holocene sediments from the deep core and shore deposits are enriched in fluvial particles showing similar grain-size modes as the northern and south-western streams. This suggests that these regions were prime sediment sources during lower lake-level stands. An additional mode, tentatively related to aeolian particles, was also identified in the Holocene samples, pointing to the remobilization of deposited dust in the watershed or to a more arid regional climate.Our results provide a first synoptic view on sedimentary dynamics in the Dead Sea watershed and help to relate sediment provenance to the drainage morphology and paleo-hydrological regimes. They constitute a solid basis for further assessment of sedimentary provenance using geochemical indicators.

Download Full-text

Near East Desertification: impact of Dead Sea drying on convective rainfall

10.5194/acp-2019-544 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Samiro Khodayar ◽

Johannes Hoerner

Keyword(s):

Lake Level ◽

Weather Prediction ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Atmospheric Stability ◽

Lower Boundary ◽

Heavy Precipitation ◽

Dead Sea ◽

Decadal Scale ◽

The Dead ◽

The Impact

Abstract. The Dead Sea desertification-threatened region is affected by continual lake level decline and occasional, but life-endangering flash-floods. Climate change has aggravated such issues in the past decades. In this study, the impact of the Dead Sea drying on the severe convection generating heavy precipitation in the region is investigated. Perturbation simulations with the high-resolution convection-permitting regional climate model COSMO-CLM and several numerical weather prediction (NWP) runs on an event time scale are performed over the Dead Sea area. A reference simulation covering the 2003 to 2013 period and a twin sensitivity experiment, in which the Dead Sea is dried out and set to bare soil, are compared. NWP simulations focus on heavy precipitation events exhibiting relevant differences between the reference and the sensitivity decadal realization to assess the impact on the underlying convection-related processes. On a decadal scale, the difference between the simulations points out that in future regional climate, under ongoing lake level decline, a decrease in evaporation, higher air temperatures and less precipitation is to expect. Particularly, an increase in the number of dry days and in the intensity of heavy precipitation is foreseen. The drying of the Dead Sea is seen to affect the atmospheric conditions leading to convection in two ways: (a) the local decrease in evaporation reduces moisture availability in the lower boundary layer locally and in the neighbouring, directly affecting atmospheric stability. Weaker updrafts characterize the drier and more stable atmosphere of the simulations where the Dead Sea has been dried out. (b) Thermally driven wind system circulations and resulting divergence/convergence fields are altered preventing in many occasions convection initiation because of the omission of convergence lines.

Download Full-text

Changes in hydroclimate during last deglaciation lake-level fall in the Dead Sea sediment record

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7372 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Markus J. Schwab ◽

Daniela Müller ◽

Ina Neugebauer ◽

Rik Tjallingii ◽

Yoav Ben Dor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lake Sediments ◽

Lake Level ◽

Drainage Basin ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Dead Sea ◽

Laminated Sediments ◽

Last Deglaciation ◽

Sediment Record ◽

Deep Lake ◽

The Dead

The drainage basin of the Dead Sea is the largest hydrological system in the Levant and spans across the boundary between the sub-humid to semi-arid Mediterranean and the arid to hyper-arid Saharo-Arabian climate zones. As a terminal lake, precipitation changes due to climatic variations result in extensive fluctuations of lake level and sediment deposition.A unique sediment record from the deepest part of the Dead Sea Basin was obtained as part of the ICDP Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project. Here we analyze the partially annually laminated sediments of Core 5017-1-A between 88.5-99.2 m core depth, which comprise the period between ~16.5 and ~11 ka and document a lake level drop of ca 160 m. In the sediments of Core 5017-1-A, this marks the transition from MIS2 aad (alternating aragonite and detritus) sediments to MIS1 halite deposits and ld (laminated detrital marl) sediments, coinciding with increased drying in the Dead Sea watershed.Microfacies analyses show the occurrence of several lithological facies that accumulated during MIS2: aad, gd (massive gypsum deposit within marl), native sulfur concretions (associated with greenish colored aad), mtd (mass-transport deposits, typically graded) and homogenites consisting of clay and silt. Further, flood layers have been identified, potentially indicating rainstorms associated with specific eastern Mediterranean synoptic systems. To complement the microfacies analyses, XRF scanning provides continuous Ti/Ca and S/Ca records to reconstruct relative detrital input and gypsum occurrence, respectively. Additionally, to study potential early signs of hydroclimatic change, the deep lake sediments are correlated to the Lisan Formation of the marginal Masada outcrop using distinct gypsum marker layers, indicative of pronounced lake level drops. However, due to a significant lake level decline, the Masada outcrop sediments terminate at around 14.5 ka and the subsequent lake level lowering is solely recorded in the deep lake sediments.This study was funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG Grant BR 2208/13-1/-2). Further, it is a contribution to the Helmholtz Association (HFG) climate initiative REKLIM Topic 8 &#8220;Abrupt climate change derived from proxy data&#8221;.

Download Full-text

A 45 kyr laminae record from the Dead Sea: Implications for basin erosion and floods recurrence

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6544 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nicolas Waldmann ◽

Yin Lu ◽

Revital Bookman ◽

Shmulik Marco

Keyword(s):

High Frequency ◽

Lake Level ◽

Dead Sea ◽

Last Deglaciation ◽

The Holocene ◽

Lamina Thickness ◽

The Last Deglaciation ◽

The Dead ◽

Basin Erosion ◽

The Last Glacial

Recording and analyzing how climate change impacts flood recurrence, basin erosion, and sedimentation can improve our understanding of these systems. The aragonite-detritus laminae couplets comprising the lacustrine formations that were deposited in the Dead Sea Basin are considered as faithful monitors of the freshwater supply to the lakes. We count a total of ~5600 laminae couplets deposited in the last 45 kyr (MIS3-MIS1) at the Dead Sea depocenter, which encompass the upper 141.6 m of the ICDP Core 5017-1. The present study shows that aragonite and detritus laminae are thinner and occur at high frequency during MIS 3-2, while they are much thicker and less frequent during MIS 1. By analyzing multiple climate-connected factors, we propose that significant lake-level drops, enhanced dust input, and low vegetative cover in the drainage basin during the last deglaciation (22-11.6 ka) have considerably increased erodible materials in the Dead Sea watershed. We find a decoupling existed between the significant lake-level drop/lake size reduction and lamina thickness change during the last deglaciation. We argue that during the last glacial and the Holocene, the variation of lamina thickness at the multiple-millennium scale was not controlled directly by the lake-level/size change. We interpret this decoupling implying the transport capacity of flash-floods is low and might be saturated by the oversupply of erodible materials, and indicating a transport-limited regime during the time period. We suggest that the observed thickness and frequency distribution of aragonite-detritus laminae points to the high frequency of small-magnitude floods during the last glacial period, in contrast to low frequency, but large-magnitude floods during the Holocene.

Download Full-text

Variation of the Descriptive Grain Size Distribution Along Cores From the Sebkha of Sidi El Hani, Eastern Tunisia

10.4018/978-1-7998-9498-8.ch012 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 197-214

Author(s):

Elhoucine Essefi ◽

Soumaya Hajji

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

Size Distribution ◽

Grain Size Distribution ◽

Method Of Moments ◽

Statistical Treatment ◽

Special Care ◽

Statistical Parameters ◽

Sedimentary Dynamics

In this chapter, cores were the object of descriptive classifications of the grain size distribution, which were meant to describe the grain size continuous variability within cores and to correlate between them. The statistical treatment of the crude data was done on the basis of two different methods (the method of moments statistics and the method of inclusive graphic statistics) to compute statistical parameters of the grain size distribution such as mean and median. The correlations between cores were done on the basis of sand/silt/clay percentages. Even though it has given special care to test different methods of studying the grain size distribution, this study has not deviated from its primary purpose of investigating the filling of the playa; correlations between different cores were meant to infer their sedimentary dynamics.

Download Full-text

Variability to sedimentary dynamics and climatic conditions during the last two millennia at sebkha Souassi in eastern Tunisia

Papers on Global Change IGBP ◽

10.2478/igbp-2013-0001 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Elhoucine Essefi ◽

Hayet Ben Jmaa ◽

Jamel Touir ◽

Mohamed Ali Tagortig ◽

Chokri Yaicha

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

Size Distribution ◽

Grain Size Distribution ◽

Little Ice Age ◽

Climatic Variability ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Ice Age ◽

Global Changes ◽

Sedimentary Dynamics ◽

The Last Two Millennia

AbstractThis paper covers work intended to study the interplay of sedimentary dynamics and climatic variability over the last two millennia within Tunisia’s sebkha Souassi. Based on the Visual Core Description, and magnetic susceptibility, we date the core from sebkha Souassi to the last two millennia. Genetic grain-size distribution then provided a basis for the identification of six climatic stages, i.e. the Warming Present (WP), the Late Little Ice Age (Late LIA), the Early Little Ice Age (ELIA), the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA), the Dark Ages (DA), and the Roman Warm Period (RWP). The WP stretches across the uppermost 3 cm, with a high grey scale indicating a dry climate. The Late LIA is located between 3 and 7 cm, and the ELIA between 7 and 28 cm. Intermediate values for GS indicate that this stage may be classified as moderate. The MCA spanning from 28 to 40 cm is marked by a sharp decrease in GS indicative of a wet period. The DA appear along the part between 40 and 79 cm, a shift from light to dark sediments being recorded. The RWP in turn appears between 79 and 114 cm. Based on the grain-size distribution, two low-frequency cycles were identified, indicating radical global changes in climatic conditions, differential tectonics and groundwater fluctuations. High-frequency cycles in turn attest to local modifications of climatic conditions.

Download Full-text