The Holocene climatic record of the salt caves of Mount Sedom Israel

Abstract

Mount Sedom is a salt diapir, on the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea, which has been rising above the local base level throughout the Holocene. Karst development within the salt body has kept pace with the rise forming subhorizontal cave passages with vertical shafts. Wood fragments found embedded in flood sediments that were deposited in the cave passages yielded 14C ages ranging from c. 7100 to 200 BP. A palaeoclimatic sequence was constructed, based on parameters that include: relative abundance of plant types or floral communities, the elevations of the corresponding cave passages and the ratio of their width to present passage width. The results were correlated to the Holocene sedimentary sequence of the Dead Sea Basin, and other features associated with shifting lake levels. Moister climatic stages are indicated by relatively abundant wood remains, by wide cave passages and by elevated outlets indicating high Dead Sea level. Arid periods are marked by a scarcity of wood remains, by narrow cave passages and by low-level outlets. The Holocene sequence of Mount Sedom is subdivided into 10 climatic stages: A moist stage in the early Holocene, older than 7000 BP, and nine subsequent stages of drier climate, fluctuating between conditions that are somewhat drier, up to somewhat moister than those of today. The Dead Sea level dropped from c. -300 MSL during the early moist period to -400 MSL or lower during the subsequent arid periods.

A Holocene coral–algal reef at Mavra Litharia, Gulf of Corinth, Greece: structure, history, and applications in relative sea-level change

“…6500 years BP onwards as the climate dried up (PetitMaire, 1991). This result is corroborated from studies on the salt caves of Mount Sedom, Israel (Frumkin and Elitzur, 2002;Frumkin et al, 1991), which show a moist stage before 7000 years BP; subsequent aridification was accompanied by drop in the Dead Sea level from À300 m to À400 m. Carbon and oxygen isotope data from Sudan show a cold and wet phase from 8500 to 7000 years BP (Williams et al, 2000). Nevertheless, Holocene records of the western and eastern Mediterranean differ (Magny et al, 2002); in the west, the second half of the Holocene was warmer and drier than the first half; in the east, which must include the Gulf of Corinth, the history is more complex, but shows a wet phase 6000-5830 years BP, in contrast to drier conditions preceding and following that time.…”

Vegetation history and climate fluctuations on a transect along the Dead Sea west shore and their impact on past societies over the last 3500 years

“…The beach ridge, indicator for a low level around 1510-1400 yr BC, and higher Chenopodiaceae values in Ze'elim might be an indicator for aridity in the South of the Dead Sea region. The southern basin of the Dead Sea was dry (Frumkin et al, 1991). Enzel et al (2003) emphasize that a drop of the lake level below the sill (À402 m) means that annual rainfall must have been below the modern mean rainfall and prolonged droughts must have prevailed in the Levant.…”

“…Judean Hills) and has itself been an economic resource for w10 000 years (Nissenbaum, 1993). Crucial for the discussion of climate change are reconstructions of the Holocene Dead Sea lake levels (Bookman et al, 2006;Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al, 2004;Enzel et al, 2003;Frumkin, 1997;Frumkin and Elitzur, 2002;Frumkin et al, 1991;Klein and Flohn, 1987;Klinger et al, 2003;Migowski et al, 2006;Neev and Emery, 1967). Several cores from the western shore of the Dead Sea were used for palynological investigations during the 1990s, but pollen records span maximally 3000 years and few radiocarbon ages were available (Baruch, 1990(Baruch, , 1993Heim et al, 1997).…”

Initial results of the southeastern Wadi Araba, Jordan Geoarchaeological Study: Implications for shifts in late quaternary aridity

“…Periods of high lake levels of the Dead Sea were constructed from radiocarbon-dated, detrital wood deposited within the cave outlets on the rising salt diapir of Mt. Sedom in the southern Dead Sea basin (Frumkin et al, 1991;Frumkin, 1997). Figure 12 compares high Dead Sea levels with a curve for arboreal pollen from different archaeological sites of varying ages in the arid regions of Israel (Horowitz,1992).…”