Sediment transport mechanisms revealed by quantitative analyses of seafloor morphology: New evidence from multibeam bathymetry of the Israel exclusive economic zone

Kanari, Mor; Tibor, Gideon; Hall, John K.; Ketter, Tomer; Lang, Guy; Schattner, Uri

doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2020.104224

Cited by 38 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Changes in the bottom morphology between the northern and the southern provinces of the Levant basin, as well as different regimes of sediment transport, determine the inputs of bioavailable organic matter to the slope and deep biomes (Kanari et al 2020. In particular, the communities of the 800 m-deep bottom slope stations were distinct between the northern (substantial lateral transport from the shelf) and the southern (limited to no lateral transport) transects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Offshore Haifa, the direction of this transport changes to the North-West direction and glides into the slope and deep basin ( Fig. 1b; Kanari et al, 2020). The similarities of microbial communities along this path can be at least partially attributed to this feature.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 93%

“…Despite the ultraoligotrophic nature of this basin, sedimentation rates are substantial, in particular, offshore northern Israel (0.016 -0.005 cm y -1 at the depths of 1500-1900 m offshore Haifa, Katz et al, 2020). They are largely attributed to the lateral transport of sediments from the continental shelf which is fed into the slope and deep basin offshore northern Israel, but to a much lesser extent offshore the south and central Israel (Kanari et al, 2020). This lateral transport results in an unexpectedly high accumulation of potentially refractory particulate organic matter at the seafloor (Alkalay et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diversity, activity and abundance of benthic microbes in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea: A baseline for monitoring

Rubin‐Blum

Sisma-Ventura

Yudkovski

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Microbes are key players in marine sediments, yet they are not accessed routinely by monitoring programs. Here, we investigate the spatial and vertical trends in the abundance, activity and diversity of benthic archaea, bacteria and fungi of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea (SEMS), based on ∼150 samples collected by the National Monitoring Program in 2018-2020 in coastal, as well as deep-sea transects across the Israeli exclusive economic zone, using vertical profiles of short sediment cores (0-1, 1-2, 4-5, 9-10 and 19-20 cm below surface). Microbial abundance was usually low (0.01 ×108 to 0.21×108 cells gr-1 sediment), while heterotrophic productivity was the highest in the nearshore stations (12±4 ng C gr-1 sediment h-1), as opposed to 0.5±0.9 ng C gr-1 sediment h-1 at the offshore sites. Using amplicon sequencing of marker genes, we identified the changes in the diversity of microbes along environmental gradients, in the four dimensions (geographic location, seabed depth, distance from the sediment surface and time). We show high taxonomic diversity of bacteria and archaea (Shannon’s H’ 5.0-6.9) and lesser diversity of fungi (Shannon’s H’ 0.2-4.8). We use DESeq2 analyses to highlight the role of ammonia-oxidizing Nitrososphaeria in the aerated sediments of the continental slope and deep bathyal plain stations and organotrophic lineages in coastal, shelf, slope, and abyssal plain sediments. Based on taxonomic diversity, we infer the metabolic potential of these communities. Analyses of fungi diversity and guilds suggest the prevalence of the saprotrophic and pathotrophic microfungi Ascomycota (70±23%) and Basidiomycota (16±18%) in the SEMS sediments. We provide a comprehensive baseline of benthic microbial populations in the SEMS and pledge for the use of microbial indices in biomonitoring of the marine environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diversity, activity and abundance of benthic microbes in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea: A baseline for monitoring

Rubin‐Blum

Sisma-Ventura

Yudkovski

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…After Pliocene rise of the Judea Hills and the development of the Dead-Sea Transform, the easterly drainage system was disconnected from the Levant, making the River Nile the main sediment source to the basin (Garfunkel, 1981;Gardosh, Druckman, Buchbinder, and Calvo, 2008;Gardosh, Druckman, Buchbinder, and Rybakov, 2008;Gvirtzman et al, 2014Gvirtzman et al, , 2015Bar et al, 2016;Zucker et al, 2019;Kanari et al, 2020).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and kinematics of a basin-scale, non-polygonal, layer-bound normal fault system in the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean

Joffe¹,

Jackson²,

Steinberg³

et al. 2022

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Polygonal, layer-bound normal faults can extend over very large areas (>2,000,000 km2) of sedimentary basins. Best developed in very fine-grained rocks, these faults are thought to form during early burial in response to a range of diagenetic processes, including compaction and water expulsion. Local deviations from this idealised polygonal pattern are common; however, basin-scale, layer-bound faults with non-polygonal map-view are not well-documented and accordingly, their genesis is not well-understood. In this study we use 3D seismic reflection data, biostratigraphy, and well-logs from the Southern Levant Basin, offshore Israel, to develop an age-constrained seismic-stratigraphic framework and determine the geometry and kinematics of such basin-scale fault system. The faults tip-out downwards along an Eocene Unconformity, but unlike layer-bound faults in the Northern Levant Basin, they do not reach the base of the Messinian evaporites, instead tipping-out upwards at the top Langhian. On average, the faults in the Southern Levant Basin are 6.3 km long, have an average throw of 120 m, and consistently strike NW-SE. Throw-depth plots, accompanied by thickness changes, indicate the faults nucleated as syn-depositional faults in a mudstone-dominated unit, and are spatially and kinematically associated with a WSW-ESE-striking strike-slip fault. Unlike true polygonal faults, these faults propagated through ~2 km-thick sandstone-dominated Oligocene-Miocene strata. Whereas previous studies from the Northern Levant Basin associate fault nucleation and growth with burial-related diagenesis, the sandstone-dominated character of the Oligocene-Miocene suggests that this process cannot be readily applied to the Southern Levant Basin. Instead, we highlight potential tectonic events that occurred during and may have triggered thin-skinned extension at times of fault growth. Layer-bound normal faults therefore should be considered in the geodynamic and structural context of the basin in which they formed.

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“…Values closer to 1 represent a more symmetric sediment wave. The Symmetry Index was calculated through an automated GIS procedure developed by Kanari et al (2020) for defining a bounding buffer of the opposing flanks of a sediment wave (Figure 8b). The buffer width equalled the mean distance between the neighbouring crests of sediment waves minus its standard deviation.…”

Section: Bathymetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedimentary response of the deep eastern Mediterranean basin to the north African desertification, sea level variation and regional tectonics

et al. 2021

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The buildup of a continental rise and its morphological patterns depend on sediment transport and deposition via downslope slumps, turbidity currents, alongslope contourites and other deepwater currents. These delivery mechanisms are central to source-to-sink reconstructions, yet untangling their individual roles is not straightforward. The current study focuses on the sink section of the Nile system at the northern Levant continental rise (eastern Mediterranean). During the Pliocene, fluvial systems from northern Africa and the Levant margin supplied sediments to the study area. This supply decreased significantly during the Quaternary because of two processes: (a) The aridification of North Africa made the Nile River the predominant contributor to the basin; (b) the topographic rise of the Levant landmass severely limited fluvial supply. Meanwhile, on-going counter-clockwise marine currents became the prevalent supply system to the Levant margin, and downslope sediment-transport became the only source to the northern Levant continental rise, which became a significant sink of the larger Nile system. These conditions provide an excellent natural laboratory for understanding the individual role of downslope sediment-transport processes in building a continental rise. This research is based on single-channel sparker seismic data, multibeam bathymetry and four 7-8 m long piston-cores collected over the northern Levant continental rise at water depths of 1200-1800 m, together with available multibeam bathymetry and industrial multi-channel seismic reflection data. The results show a major depositional changeover during the Pliocene-Quaternary transition from concordant aggradation to repeated deposition of >12 sediment wave subunits, interpreted as upslope migrating cyclic steps. Quantitative analysis of the sediment wave morphology at the seafloor and subsurface, along with core data, indicates that the immediate sediment source was the nearby shelf. The supply was regulated by basinward-landward shifts of the shore-parallel marine currents during lowstand-highstand conditions (respectively). Hence, this case study highlights the connection between sea-level change and sedimentation patterns on a continental rise.

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Sediment transport mechanisms revealed by quantitative analyses of seafloor morphology: New evidence from multibeam bathymetry of the Israel exclusive economic zone

Cited by 38 publications

References 52 publications

Diversity, activity and abundance of benthic microbes in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea: A baseline for monitoring

Diversity, activity and abundance of benthic microbes in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea: A baseline for monitoring

Origin and kinematics of a basin-scale, non-polygonal, layer-bound normal fault system in the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean

Sedimentary response of the deep eastern Mediterranean basin to the north African desertification, sea level variation and regional tectonics

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