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Late Holocene climates of the Near East deduced from Dead Sea level variations and modern regional winter rainfall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yehouda Enzel ,
Revital Bookman (Ken Tor) ,
David Sharon ,
Haim Gvirtzman ,
Uri Dayan ,
Baruch Ziv  and
Mordechai Stein
Yehouda Enzel*
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Revital Bookman (Ken Tor)
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel The Israel Geological Survey, 30 Malchei Israel St., Jerusalem, Israel
David Sharon
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Haim Gvirtzman
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Uri Dayan
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Baruch Ziv
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Open University of Israel, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
Mordechai Stein
Affiliation:
The Israel Geological Survey, 30 Malchei Israel St., Jerusalem, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +972-2-5662581.E-mail address:yenzel@vms.huji.ac.il (Y. Enzel).
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Abstract

The Dead Sea is a terminal lake of one of the largest hydrological systems in the Levant and may thus be viewed as a large rain gauge for the region. Variations of its level are indicative of the climate variations in the region. Here, we present the decadal- to centennial-resolution Holocene lake-level curve of the Dead Sea. Then we determine the regional hydroclimatology that affected level variations. To achieve this goal we compare modern natural lake-level variations and instrumental rainfall records and quantify the hydrology relative to lake-level rise, fall, or stability. To quantify that relationship under natural conditions, rainfall data pre-dating the artificial Dead Sea level drop since the 1960s are used. In this respect, Jerusalem station offers the longest uninterrupted pre-1960s rainfall record and Jerusalem rains serve as an adequate proxy for the Dead Sea headwaters rainfall. Principal component analysis indicates that temporal variations of annual precipitation in all stations in Israel north of the current 200 mm yr−1 average isohyet during 1940–1990 are largely synchronous and in phase (∼70% of the total variance explained by PC1). This station also represents well northern Jordan and the area all the way to Beirut, Lebanon, especially during extreme drought and wet spells. We (a) determine the modern, and propose the past regional hydrology and Eastern Mediterranean (EM) climatology that affected the severity and length of droughts/wet spells associated with multiyear episodes of Dead Sea level falls/rises and (b) determine that EM cyclone tracks were different in average number and latitude in wet and dry years in Jerusalem. The mean composite sea level pressure and 500-mb height anomalies indicate that the potential causes for wet and dry episodes span the entire EM and are rooted in the larger-scale northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation. We also identified remarkably close association (within radiocarbon resolution) between climatic changes in the Levant, reflected by level changes, and culture shifts in this region.

Keywords

Eastern MediterraneanDead SeaRainfallPaleoclimateLake levelHoloceneAtmospheric circulationDroughtWater resourcesHydrologyHistory
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , November 2003 , pp. 263 - 273
Copyright
University of Washington

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