Late Tertiary faulting along the coastal plain of Israel

Abstract

This study documents a 70‐km long and 200–400 m high step at the base of the Pliocene section in the Israeli coastal plain. Depositional explanations for this lineament, such as a buried shelf edge or reef front, are very unlikely; whereas a fault scarp explanation is supported by seismic profiles and geological cross sections. The eastern elevated side of the fault was eroded before its burial, though a quantitive distinction between this erosion, earlier truncations, and original hiatuses, is not possible at this stage. Sediments covering the fault scarp constrain its age to Late Miocene and/or Early Pliocene. The presence of such a fault along the Israeli coastal plain may also shed light on numerous post‐Mid‐Cretaceous faults previously documented along the coastal plain, but never explained. In a wider perspective, the fault described here along with other documented processes indicate that in the Late Tertiary tectonism along the Levant continental margin resumed after a long passive history. This renewed activity is coeval with the Africa‐Arabian breakup and the Red Sea‐ Suez rifting. In particular, the fault described here is coeval with plate reorganization and vertical motions along the Dead Sea transform and possibly along the Cypriot Arc during the Late Miocene‐Early Pliocene.

Newly developed paleomagnetic map of the EasternmostMediterranean joined with tectono-structural analysis unmaskgeodynamic history of this region

“…Hermon). Data on borehole sections and outcroppings were taken from numerous publications and reports [9,11,18,33,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75]. Among the employed materials were geological maps of Israel [76], Jordan [77], Egypt [72] and photomaps of Israel and adjacent areas [78].…”

Tectonic-Geophysical Mapping of Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean: Implications for Hydrocarbon Prospecting

“…Hermon) (Figure 2). Data on borehole sections and outcroppings were taken from numerous publications and reports [8,17,19,21,[30][31][32][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49].…”

“…Of primary importance are the geophysical maps that included gravity and magnetic maps of Israel and the Levant [54][55][56], satellite gravity data [57], a map of the Moho discontinuity for the eastern Mediterranean [58], a map of the Curie discontinuity for Israel [58], the geothermal gradient map of Israel [59] and maps of earthquakes epicenters [60,61]. In addition we drew on the results of regional analyses of seismic, gravity, magnetic and thermal data in this region [2][3][4]11,13,20,62,63], seismostratigraphic examinations [10,11,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21], and detailed geophysical-geological studies in separate areas [14,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74].…”

“…The Sinai plate [22] is bounded from the west and the east by a system of Late Cenozoic deep faults [3,24]. The eastern In this region numerous seismostratigraphic investigations have been carried out (e.g., [9,10,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]). These works have mainly been oriented toward the study of prospective hydrocarbons structures.…”

Intra- to post-Messinian deep-water gas piping in the Levant Basin, SE Mediterranean

“…This is consequence of the low permeability of rock salt (in-situ permeability of undisturbed rock Steinberg et al, 2008;Bertoni et al, 2013). Pink polyline marks the landward edge of the Messinian evaporite (Reiche et al, 2014).…”