Lake level changes in the Dead Sea during the late Pleistocene recorded by fossil lake shorelines

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julius Jara-Muñoz ◽  
Amotz Agnon ◽  
Jens Fohlmeister ◽  
Jürgen Mey ◽  
Norbert Frank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Oxygen And Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Impact

<p><span>High-resolution records of lake-level changes are crucial to elucidate the impact of local and global climatic changes in lacustrine basins. The Late Quaternary evolution of the Dead Sea has been characterized by substantial variability apparently linked with global climatic changes, beign subject of many research efforts since decades. Previous studies have defined two main lake phases, the Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea, the earlier was a highstand period that lasted between ~70 and ~15 ka, the  latter was the lowstand period that persisted until the present. Here we focus on the switch between Lake Lisan and Dead Sea studying fossil lake shorelines, a sequence that comprises dozens of levels exposed along the rims of the Dead Sea, containing abundant fossil stromatolites that we dated by mean of radiocarbon and U-decay series. We determined 90 radiocarbon and 35 U-Th ages from stromatolites from almost every shoreline level. We compared U-Th and radiocarbon ages to estimating a radiocarbon reservoir between 0.2 and 0.8 ka, used to correct the remaining radiocarbon ages before calibration. The resulting ages range between ~45  and ~20 ka. Dating was </span><span>complemented with analysis of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes. Furthermore, we applied a distributed hydrological balance model to constrain past precipitation and temperature conditions. Our results suggest that the duration of the last Lake Lisan highstand was shorter than previously estimated. Taking this at face value, the switch between Lake Lisan and Dead Sea occurred at ~28 ka, ~10 ka earlier than previously suggested. Oxygen and carbon isotopes show a consistent pattern, displaying a switch between wet and dry conditions at ~28 ka. Preliminary results from the hydrological model indicate a much stronger sensitivity of the lake level to precipitation amounts than to air temperature. From our results we can’t observe a clear link between global temperature variations and lake-level changes in the Lisan/Dead Sea lakes. Similar non-linear response to northern hemisphere climatic changes have been also documented in Holocene Dead Sea paleoclimatic records, suggesting that global climatic variations may led to variable lake-level responses. The results of this study adds further complexity to the understanding of factors controlling climate variability in the Dead Sea. </span></p>

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

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.

Late Pleistocene paleo-hydrological reconstruction based on a new lake-level curve of the Dead Sea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Mey ◽  
Juluis Jara ◽  
Manfred R. Strecker
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Level Curve ◽  
Parameter Uncertainties ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Winter Storms ◽  
Sedimentary Sequences ◽  
Southward Shift ◽  
The Dead

<p><span><span>The Dead Sea depression features exceptionally well preserved lacustrine sedimentary sequences and fossil lake-level markers that attest to a much more extensive lake with a maximum highstand water level of more than 200 m above the modern Dead Sea. Lake-level reconstructions based on sedimentary sequences places this highstand phase within the interval of 15-29 ka. Regional paleoclimatic records, however, indicate arid conditions during this time. This apparent contradiction has been explained by spatially heterogeneous moisture delivery resulting from a southward shift of the Westerly wind system and a change in the path and intensity of winter storms. A newly established lake level-chronology based on </span><sup><span>14</span></sup><span>C- and U/Th-dating of fossil stromatolites has provided contrasting results with respect to previous investigations. Accordingly, the paleolake-highstand was of much shorter duration and occurred at least 10 ka earlier than previously suggested</span><span>. The new lake-level curve agrees with evidence of arid glacial and humid interglacial periods in the Levant.  </span><span>In this study we compared these different lake-level reconstructions quantitatively, using a distributed hydrological balance model. This model computes evaporation based on an aerodynamic- /mass-transfer approach. Calibration and validation of this model is achieved by using ~30 years of pre-anthropogenic lake-level observations combined with interpolated climate surfaces based on weather-station records. In the paleo-hydrological reconstruction we account for parameter uncertainties using Monte-Carlo simulations. Our preliminary results show a pronounced sensitivity of the lake-level to precipitation, wind speed, and surface roughness.</span></span></p>

scholarly journals Relationships between lake-level changes and water and salt budgets in the Dead Sea during extreme aridities in the Eastern Mediterranean

2017 ◽  
Vol 464 ◽  
pp. 211-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Kiro ◽  
Steven L. Goldstein ◽  
Javier Garcia-Veigas ◽  
Elan Levy ◽  
Yochanan Kushnir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
The Dead

scholarly journals Sharp changes in lake-levels preconditioning seismogenic mass failures in the Dead Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Lu ◽  
Amotz Agnon ◽  
Shmuel Marco ◽  
Revital Bookman ◽  
Nicolas Waldmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Level ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Age Dating ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
Mass Failure ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

<p>Subaqueous mass failures that comprise slides, slumps and debris flows are a major process that transport sediments from the continental shelf and upper slope to the deep basins (both oceans and lacustrine settings). They are often viewed together with other natural hazards such as earthquakes, and can have serious socioeconomic consequences. It is increasingly important to understand the relationship between mass failures and climate-driven factors such as changes in water-level. Despite extensive marine investigations on this topic world-wide, the relationship between changes in water-level and mass failures is still highly disputed. This is due largely to the significant uncertainties in age dating and different potential triggers and preconditioning factors of mass failure events from different geological settings. Here, we present a 70 kyr-long record of mass failure from the Dead Sea Basin center (ICDP Core 5017-1). This sedimentary sequence has been dated in high accuracy (±0.6 kyr) and has similar responses to climate forcing. Moreover, the mass failure record is interpreted to be controlled by a single trigger mechanism (i.e. seismicity).<br>Based on the recent detailed study on the sedimentological signature of seismic shaking in the Dead Sea center, these seismogenic mass failures (seismites) account only for a part of the whole seismites catalog, suggesting that mass failure follows only part of seismic shaking irrespective of intensities of the shaking. This is evidenced by the common absence of mass failures following the in situ developed and preserved seismites (e.g., the in situ folded layer and intraclast breccias layer) which represent different intensities of seismic shaking. This feature implies that some non-seismic factor(s) must have preconditioned for the seismogenic mass failures in the Dead Sea center.<br>Our observations reveal decoupling between change in sedimentation rates and occurrence probability of these seismogenic mass failures, thus suggesting that a change in sedimentation rate is not the preconditioning factor for the failure events. While 79% of seismogenic mass failure events occurred during lake-level rise/drop in contrast to 21% events occurred in the quiescent intervals between. Our dataset implies that seismogenic mass failures can occur at any lake-level state, but are more likely to occur during lake-level rise/drop due to the instability of the basin margins. In addition, the seismogenic mass failures occurred more frequently during glacials (characterized by highstand and high-amplitude lake-level changes) than during interglacials, as a result of the morphologic characteristics of the lake margin slopes and different lithologies (e.g. halite) influences which are both connected to the glacial-interglacial lake-level changes.</p>

Holocene Climate Variability and Cultural Evolution in the Near East from the Dead Sea Sedimentary Record

2006 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Migowski ◽  
Mordechai Stein ◽  
Sushma Prasad ◽  
Jörg F.W. Negendank ◽  
Amotz Agnon
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Lake Level Changes ◽  
The Dead

AbstractA comprehensive record of lake level changes in the Dead Sea has been reconstructed using multiple, well dated sediment cores recovered from the Dead Sea shore. Interpreting the lake level changes as monitors of precipitation in the Dead Sea drainage area and the regional eastern Mediterranean palaeoclimate, we document the presence of two major wet phases (∼ 10–8.6 and ∼ 5.6–3.5 cal kyr BP) and multiple abrupt arid events during the Holocene. The arid events in the Holocene Dead Sea appear to coincide with major breaks in the Near East cultural evolution (at ∼ 8.6, 8.2, 4.2, 3.5 cal kyr BP). Wetter periods are marked by the enlargement of smaller settlements and growth of farming communities in desert regions, suggesting a parallelism between climate and Near East cultural development.

The late Quaternary limnological history of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel

2005 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Hazan ◽  
M. Stein ◽  
A. Agnon ◽  
S. Marco ◽  
D. Nadel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lake Level ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Lake Kinneret ◽  
Climate History ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The freshwater Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and the hypersaline Dead Sea are remnant lakes, evolved from ancient water bodies that filled the tectonic depressions along the Dead Sea Transform (DST) during the Neogene–Quartenary periods. We reconstructed the limnological history (level and composition) of Lake Kinneret during the past ∼40,000 years and compared it with the history of the contemporaneous Lake Lisan from the aspect of the regional and global climate history. The lake level reconstruction was achieved through a chronological and sedimentological investigation of exposed sedimentary sections in the Kinnarot basin trenches and cores drilled at the Ohalo II archeological site. Shoreline chronology was established by radiocarbon dating of organic remains and of Melanopsis shells.The major changes in Lake Kinneret level were synchronous with those of the southern Lake Lisan. Both lakes dropped significantly ∼42,000, ∼30,000, 23,800, and 13,000 yr ago and rose ∼39,000, 26,000, 5000, and 1600 yr ago. Between 26,000 and 24,000 yr ago, the lakes merged into a unified water body and lake level achieved its maximum stand of ∼170 m below mean sea level (m bsl). Nevertheless, the fresh and saline water properties of Lake Kinneret and Lake Lisan, respectively, have been preserved throughout the 40,000 years studied. Calcium carbonate was always deposited as calcite in Lake Kinneret and as aragonite in Lake Lisan–Dead Sea, indicating that the Dead Sea brine (which supports aragonite production) never reached or affected Lake Kinneret, even during the period of lake high stand and convergence. The synchronous level fluctuation of lakes Kinneret, Lisan, and the Holocene Dead Sea is consistent with the dominance of the Atlantic–Mediterranean rain system on the catchment of the basin and the regional hydrology. The major drops in Lake Kinneret–Lisan levels coincide with the timing of cold spells in the North Atlantic that caused a shut down of rains in the East Mediterranean and the lakes drainage area.

Between plate and salt tectonics—New stratigraphic constraints on the architecture and timing of the Dead Sea basin during the Late Quaternary

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Coianiz ◽  
Uri Schattner ◽  
Guy Lang ◽  
Zvi Ben‐Avraham ◽  
Michael Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Salt Tectonics ◽  
Dead Sea Basin ◽  
The Dead

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Southern Levant: synthesis, challenges, recent developments and perspectives

2010 ◽  
Vol 368 (1931) ◽  
pp. 5225-5248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire M. C. Rambeau
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽  
First Results ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Dead

Palaeoenvironmental research in the Southern Levant presents a series of challenges, partly due to the unequal distribution of palaeoenvironmental records and potential archives throughout the region. Our knowledge of climatic evolution, during the last approximately 25 000 years, is of crucial importance to understand cultural developments. More local, well-dated, multi-proxy studies are much needed to obtain an accurate picture of environmental change in respect of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. This contribution reviews the current state of knowledge regarding Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental changes in the Southern Levant, including some examples of more recent developments in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in Israel and the Dead Sea area, and introduces the major challenges researchers face in the region. It also presents the first results of a new case study in Jordan, based on an analysis of peaty deposits located in the mountain slopes east of the Dead Sea. Such new studies help refine our knowledge of local environmental changes in the Southern Levant and especially the more arid areas, for which little information is presently available. More material suitable for palaeoenvironmental research, for example extensive tufa and travertine series, still awaits consideration in Jordan, opening up exciting perspectives for future research in the area.

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