tivity on the carmel faul

A total of 68 speleothem samples was taken and inspected from Denya Cave, 37 of
which were identified as seismites; of them, 32 were processed. Ten seismites are
severed stalagmites broken along sub-horizontal plains. Nine seismites of the 32 are
severed stalactites of different shapes and sizes. The remaining seismites are
flowstone samples in which breaks and depositional unconformities were found; some
revealed soda straw speleothems embedded in them.
The isochron calculated ages obtained for groups of speleo-seismite samples indicate
that each group records a seismic event. Nine age clusters were determined for speleoseismites
from Denya Cave, indicating the ages of seismic events which affected the
cave over the last 200ky: 4.8±0.80ka; 10.42±0.69ka; 20.8±3.0ka; 29.1±3.3;
38.0±2.7ka; 57.9±5.2ka; 137±29ka; 147.6±5.4ka and 160±45ka.
A comparison with data available to date from other paleoseismological studies in the
region shows that all ages obtained for Denya Cave age clusters can potentially be
compared to other ages obtained from other studies in Israel. The comparison
indicates that the breaks identified in Denya Cave speleothems, are not random and
lends supportive evidence to the assumption that they represent seismic events. Some
of the ages obtained from this study might coincide with ages of seismic events dated
along the Dead Sea Transform, as well as those along the Carmel Fault. Therefore,
future studies are required in order to determine the origin of paleo-earthquakes
reported in this study.
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