The Oligo-Miocene deepwater system of the Levant Basin

- 13 -represents the highstand progradation phase of the Late Eocene cycle. Markedly, the hemi-pelagicfacies of the Late Eocene is primarily uniform, both inland and far offshore.Unlike other locations, the Eocene succession in the synclinorial area of the Golan Heights show anuninterrupted Early to Late Eocene biostratigraphic succession from P9 to P15 (Michelson andLipson-Benitah, 1986). Therefore, the upper Eocene (P15) chalk of the Golan Heights was regardedby Michelson and Lipson-Benitah (1986) as the Maresha Formation (Fig. 3).3.3 Lower Oligocene to lower Miocene succession3.3.1 Lower Oligocene erosion phaseA major unconformity is found between the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene depositional cycles(Fig. 3). It could have been related to eustatic sea-level fall at 34 m.y. (shown by Haq et al., 1988and Miller et al., 2005). Local uplift movements associated with Syrian Arc contraction or withdoming of the Arabian Shield prior to the rifting of the Red Sea (Garfunkel, 1988) furtherintensified the erosional processes. A regional unconformity surface (peneplain) developed in theNegev and the Judea Mountains (Picard, 1951; Garfunkel and Horowitz, 1966). Zilberman (1992,1993) named this unconformity “the upper erosion surface” and pointed out that it postdates upperEocene deposits and predates Miocene continental deposits of the Hazeva Group. The presence ofthis erosion surface in the Judean hills indicates that the anticlinorial backbone of the country hadalready been emerged at that time. (Bar et al., 2006).Buchbinder et al. (2005) related the first incision of canyons in the Levant margin to the Early/LateOligocene boundary (Fig. 3). Druckman et al. (1995) associated it with P19 - ampliapertura Zone(Fig. 3). The main incision in the Ashdod-1 borehole (see Figure 7 in Buchbinder et al., 2005) mayhave been occurred at the bottom of the "Lower Sands" ("Ashdod clastics" in Fig. 3), i.e., eitherbetween P19/P20, or within the P20, P21 zones (Fig. 3). Alternatively, it may be placed at the baseof the lower Oligocene (P18) conglomerates. In the Hanna-1 borehole, which is located at the distalpart of the Ashdod Canyon, the base of the canyon fill was dated as P19 (Micro-Strat, 2003). Thediversified ages of the entrenchment of the Ashdod Canyon are obviously the result of the poorbiostratigraphic resolution, because of intense contamination and redeposition in the cuttingsamples. Nevertheless, for the sake of convenience and simplicity in the interpretation of theseismic data, the initial phase of the canyon's incision was placed at the P19 biozone (Fig. 3, seechapter 4).