Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:08:09.247Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Climatic changes during the Pliocene as observed from climate-sensitive rocks and clay minerals of the Sedom formation, the Dead Sea Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

S. Shoval  and
O. Zlatkin
S. Shoval*
Affiliation:
Geology Group, Department of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, The Dorothy de Rothschild Campus, 1 University Road, Raanana, Israel
O. Zlatkin
Affiliation:
Geology Group, Department of Natural Sciences, The Open University of Israel, The Dorothy de Rothschild Campus, 1 University Road, Raanana, Israel
*
*E-mail: shovals@openu.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The climatic history of the Dead Sea region during the Pliocene and its global connection are observed from climate-sensitive rocks and clay minerals of the Sedom formation. The Sedom formation consists of evaporative halitic rock salt units and calcareous shale units that were deposited in the Dead Sea Basin during the Pliocene. The precipitation of the rock salts took place in the hypersaline sabkha environment of the Sedom Lagoon. The extensive evaporative conditions are related to an extremely dry and warm arid climate at that time. In the arid climate, the influx of meteoric water by the drainage system of the Sedom Lagoon was limited and permitted a large concentration of lagoonal brine as well as a small rate of detritus transportation to the lagoon. Accessory sepiolite found in the rock salt appears to be neoformed from brine enriched with Mg and poor in Al under the extreme salinity condition. The small amounts of Al are in accordance with the small number of detrital minerals in the rock salts. The replacement in the deposition of the rock salt members with the calcareous shale members demonstrates a decrease in the salinity of the brine in the Sedom Basin and an increase in the deposition of detritus. The change in conditions was related to a period of deposition under a more humid climate where the erosion and the transport of detritus by the drainage system to the Sedom Basin was higher, causing the deposition of calcareous shales. Palygorskite found in the calcareous shales appears to be neoformed from brine enriched with Mg and containing Al in conditions of reduced salinity of the Sedom Basin. The larger amounts of Al are in accordance with the abundance of detrital minerals in the calcareous shales.

The depositional cycles of the Sedom formation, the cyclic fluctuation of the climatic-hydrologic conditions from an arid to a more humid climate and their correlation with sea-level fluctuations and transgression-regression cycles of the Mediterranean Sea seem to be a response to corresponding global interglacial and glacial periods during the Pliocene.

Keywords

calcareous shaleclayDead Seaevaporiteglacialinterglaciallagoonpalaeoclimatepalaeoenvironmentpalygorskitesea-levelrock saltsabkhaSedom formationsepiolite
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 2009 , pp. 469 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2009

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

Agnon, A., Weinberger, R., Zak, I. & Sneh, A. (2006) Geological map of Israel 1:50 000, Sedom sheet 20-1 II. Geological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Bartek, L.B., Vail, P.R., Anderson, J.B., Emmet, P.A. & Wu, S. (1991) Effect of Cenozoic ice sheet fluctuation in Antarctica on the stratigraphic signature of the Neogene. Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 6753–6778.Google Scholar
Bartov, Y., Stein, M., Enzel, Y., Agnon, A. & Reches, Z. (2002) Lake levels and sequence stratigraphy of Lake Lisan, the late Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea. Quaternary Research, 57, 9–21.Google Scholar
Bartov, Y., Goldstein, S.L., Stein, M. & Enzel, Y. (2003) Catastrophic arid episodes in the Eastern Mediterranean linked with the North Atlantic Heinrich events. Geology, 31, 439–442.Google Scholar
Begin, Z.B., Ehrlich, A. & Nathan, Y. (1974) Lake Lisan — the precursor of the Dead Sea. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin, 63, 1–30.Google Scholar
Besson, G. & Drits, V.A. (1997) Refined relationships between chemical composition of dioctahedral fine-grained micaceous minerals and their infrared spectra within the OH stretching region. Part II: the main factors affecting OH vibrations and quantitative analysis. Clays and Clay Minerals, 45, 170–183.Google Scholar
Bookman, R., Enzel, Y., Agnon, A. & Stein, M. (2004) Late Holoeene lake levels of the Dead Sea. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 116, 555–571.Google Scholar
Buchbinder, B. & Zilberman, E. (1997) Sequence stratigraphy of Miocene-Pliocene carbonate-silici-clastic shelf deposits in the eastern Mediterranean margin (Israel): effects of eustasy and tectonics. Sedimentary Geology, 112, 7–32.Google Scholar
Callen, R.A. (1977) Late Cainozoic environments of part of northeastern South Australia. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 24, 151–169.Google Scholar
Callen, R.A. (1984) Clays of the palygorskite-sepiolite group: depositional environment, age and distribution. Pp. 1–37 in: Palygorskite-Sepiolite. Occurences, Genesis and Uses (Singer, A. & Galan, E., editors). Development in Sedimentology, 37, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Calvo, J.P., Blanc-Valleron, M.M., Rodriguez-Arandia, J.P., Rouchy, J.M. & Sanz, M.E. (1999) Authigenic clay minerals in continental evaporitic environments. Pp. 129–151 in: Palaeoweathering, Palaeosurfaces and Related Continental Deposits (Thiry, M. & Simon-Coinçon, R., editors). International Association of Sedimentologists, Special publication, 27, Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Catalano, R.E., Di Stefano, E., Lo Cicero, G., Infuso, S., Vail, P.R. & Vitale, E.P. (1993) Basin analysis and sequence stratigraphy of the Plio-Pleistocene of Sicily. Pp. 99–104 in: Geological Development of the Sicilian-Tunisian Platform (Max, M.D. & Colantoni, P., editors). Journal of Marine Science, 56.Google Scholar
Chamley, H. (1989) Clay Sedimentology. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, 623 pp.Google Scholar
Combourieu-Nebout, N. (1993) Vegetation response to Upper Pliocene glacial/interglacial cyclicity in the central Mediterranean. Quaternary Research, 40, 228–236.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Bookman, R., Sharon, D., Gvirtzman, H., Dayan, U., Ziv, B. & Stein, M. (2003) Late Holoeene climates of the Near East deduced from Dead Sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall. Quaternary Research, 60, 263–273.Google Scholar
Eslinger, E. & Pevear, D. (1988) Clay minerals for petroleum geologists and engineers. P. 233 in: Short Course Notes, no. 22. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (SEPM).Google Scholar
Estéoule-Choux, J. (1984) Palygorskite in the Tertiary deposits of the Armorican Massif. Pp. 75–85 in: Palygorskite-Sepiolite: Occurrences, Genesis and Uses (Singer, A. & Galan, E., editors). Developments in Sedimentology, 37, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Farmer, V.C. (1974) The Infrared Spectra of Minerals. Mineralogical Society Monograph, London.Google Scholar
Frumkin, A., Magaritz, M., Carmi, I., & Zak, I. (1991) The Holoeene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel. The Holoeene, 1, 191–200.Google Scholar
Haase-Schramm, A., Goldstein, S.L. & Stein, M. (2004) U-Th dating of Lake Lisan (late Pleistocene Dead Sea) aragonite and implications for glacial East Mediterranean climate change. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 68, 985–1005.Google Scholar
Haliva-Cohen, A. (2004) Mineralogy, petrography and isotopic ratios of fine-grain detrital sediments of the Dead Sea Group: origin and transformation. Report GS1/28/04, Geological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Hepp, D.A., Morz, T. & Grützner, J. (2006) Pliocene glacial cyclicity in a deep-sea sediment drift (Antarctic Peninsula Pacific Margin). P alaeogeography, P alaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 231, 181–198 Google Scholar
Isphording, W.C. (1973) Discussion of the occurrence and origin of sedimentary palygorskite-sepiolite deposits. Clays and Clay Minerals, 21, 391–401.Google Scholar
Isphording, W.C. (1984) The clays of Yukatan, Mexico: a contrast in genesis. Pp. 59–73 in: Palygorskite-Sepiotite, Occurrences, Genesis and Uses (Singer, A. & Galan, E., editors), Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Ji, J., Ge, Y., Balsam, W., Damuth, I. E. & Chen, J. (2009) Rapid identification of dolomite using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometer (FTIR): A fast method for identifying Heinrich events in IODP Site U1308. Marine Geology, 258, 60–68.Google Scholar
Jones, B.F. (1986) Clay mineral diagenesis in lacustrine sediments. US Geological Survey Bulletin 1578, 291-300.Google Scholar
Jones, B.F. & Bowser, C.J. (1978) The mineralogy and related chemistry of lake sediments. Pp. 179–235 in: Lakes: Chemistry, Geology, Physics (Lerman, A., editor) Springer Verlag, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A. (1971) U-Series dating of Dead Sea Basin carbonates. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 35, 1269–1281.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A., Yechieli, Y. & Gardosh, M. (1992) Reevaluation of the lake-sediment chronology in the Dead Sea Basin, Israel, based on new 230 TWU dates. Quaternary Research, 38, 292–304.Google Scholar
Krupp, R.E. (2005) Formation and chemical evolution of magnesium chloride brines by evaporite dissolution processes — implications for evaporite geochemistry. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 69, 4283–4299.Google 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, 421–431.Google Scholar
Miller, K.G., Mountain, G.S. et al. (1966) Drilling and dating New Jersey Oligocene-Miocene sequences: Ice volume, global sea-level, and Exxon records. Science, 271, 1092–1095.Google Scholar
Millot, G. (1970) Geology of Clays. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany. 425 pp.Google Scholar
Moore, D.M. & Reynolds, R.C (1997) X-ray Diffraction and the Identification and Analysis of Clay Minerals (2nd edition). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 378 pp.Google Scholar
Nathan, Y. (1969) Studies on Palygorskite. PhD Thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 153 pp. (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Nathan, Y., Sandier, A. & Shoval, S. (1994) Clays of the Dead Sea. Geological Survey of Israel Current Research, 9, 20–23.Google Scholar
Nathan, Y., Dvorachek, M., Dorfman, E., Yoffe, O., Shoval, S. & Gaft, M. (1998) Strontian-hilgardite-1 Tc from the Sedom Formation, Dead Sea, Southern Israel. Geological Survey of Israel Current Research, 11, 83–86.Google Scholar
Neev, D. & Emery, K.O. (1967) The Dead Sea: depositional processes and environments of evaporites. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin, 41, 147.Google Scholar
Pekar, S. & Miller, K.G. (1996) New Jersey Oligocene ‘Icehouse’ sequences (ODP Leg 150X) correlated with global δ18O and Exxon eustatic records. Geology, 24, 567–570.Google Scholar
Prasad, S., Vis, H., Negendank, J.F.K., Wladmann, N. & Stein, M., (2004) Evidence from Lake Lisan of solar influence on decadal- to centennialscale climate variability during isotope stage 2. Geology, 32, 581–584.Google Scholar
Robert, C. & Chamley, H. (1991) Development of early Eocene warm climates, as inferred from clay mineral variations in oceanic sediments. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 89, 315–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoval, S. (2004) Clay Sedimentation along the Southeastern Neo-Tethys Margin During the Oceanic Convergence Stage. Applied Clay Science Journal, 24, 287–298.Google Scholar
Singer, A. (1980) The paleoclimatic interpretation of clay minerals in soil and weathering profiles. Earth Science Reviews, 15, 303–326.Google Scholar
Singer, A. (1984a) Pedogenic palygorskite in the arid environment. Pp. 169-175 in: Palygorskite-Sepiolite. Occurrence, Genesis and Uses (Singer, A. & Gálan, E., editors). Developments in Sedimentology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Singer, A. (1984b) The paleoclimatic interpretation of clay minerals in sediments-A review. Earth Science Reviews, 21, 251–293.Google Scholar
Singer, A. & Galán, E., (1984) Palygorskite-Sepiolite. Occurrences, Genesis and Uses. Developments in Sedimentology, 37, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 352 pp.Google Scholar
Singer, A., Ganor, E., Dultz, S. & Fischer, W. (2002) Dust deposition over the Dead Sea. Journal of Arid Environments, 53, 41–59.Google Scholar
Singer, A., Dultz, S. & Argaman, E. (2004) Properties of the non-soluble fractions of suspended dust over the Dead Sea. Atmospheric Environment, 38, 1745–1753 Google Scholar
Starinsky, A. (1974) Relationship between Ca-chloride brines and sedimentary rocks in Israel. PhD Thesis. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 176 pp. (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Stein, M. (2001) The sedimentary and geochemical record of Neogene-Quaternary water bodies in the Dead Sea basin — inferences from the regional paleoclimatic history. Journal of Paleolimnology, 26, 271-282.Google Scholar
Stein, M., Starinsky, A., Katz, A., Goldstein, S. L., Machlus, M. & Schramm, A. (1997) Sr-isotopic, chemical and sedimentological evidence for the evolution of Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 61, 3975–3992.Google Scholar
Stein, M., Starinsky, A., Agnon, A., Katz, A., Raab, M., Spiro, B. & Zak, I. (2000) The impact of brine-rock interaction during marine evaporite formation on the isotopic Sr record in the oceans: evidence from Mt. Sedom. Israel. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 64, 2039–2053.Google Scholar
Thunell, R., Rio, D., Sprovieri, R. & Vergnaud-Grazzini, C. (1991) An overview of the post-Messinian paleoenvironmental history of the western Mediterranean. Paleoceanography, 6, 143–164.Google Scholar
Torfstein, A. (2008) Brine—freshwater interplay and effects on the evolution of saline lakes: The Dead Sea Rift terminal lakes. Report GS1/20/08, Geological Survey of Israel, 293 pp.Google Scholar
Torfstein, A., Gavrieli, I., Katz, A., Kolodny, Y. & Stein, M. (2008) Gypsum as a monitor of the paleolimnological—hydrological conditions in Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 72, 2491–2509.Google Scholar
Torfstein, A., Haase-Schramm, A., Waldmann, N., Kolodny, Y. & Stein, M. (2009) U-series and oxygen isotope chronology of the mid-Pleistocene Lake Amora (Dead Sea basin). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ada, 73, 2603–2630.Google Scholar
Velde, B. (1985) Clay Minerals, a physico-chemical explanation of their occurrence. Developments in Sedimentology, 40. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Waldmann, N., Starinsky, A. & Stein, M. (2007) Primary carbonates and Ca-chloride brines as monitors of a paleo-hydrological regime in the Dead Sea basin. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26, 2219–2228.Google Scholar
Weaver, C.E. & Beck, K.C. (1977) Miocene of the SE United States: A model for chemical sedimentation in a peri-marine environment. Sedimentary Geology, 17, 1–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wornardt, W.W. Jr. & Vail, E.R. (1991) Revision of the Plio-Pleistocene cycles and their application to sequence stratigraphic on shelf and slope sediments in the Gulf of Mexico. Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, Transactions, 41, 719-744.Google Scholar
Zak, I. (1967) The Geology of Mount Sedom. PhD Thesis, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 208 pp. (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Zak, I. & Freund, R. (1980) Strain measurements in the eastern marginal shear zone of Mount Sedom salt diapir, Israel. AAPG Bulletin, 64, 568–581.Google Scholar
Zhou, H., Murray, H.H. & Harvey, C.C. (1999) Formation of the Guanshan palygorskite. Anhui Province, P.R. China. Proceedings of 11th International Clay Conference 1997, Ottawa, Canada, 89-96.Google Scholar