The Oligo-Miocene deepwater system of the Levant Basin

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- 43 -allowing eurohaline fauna to prevail throughout the Mediterranean (Hsu et al, 1978; Buchbinder etal., 2006).Bertoni and Cartwright (2007) showed a major erosion event and an unconformity surface at the topof the Messinian evaporates (M marker) in the eastern Mediterranean Levant Basin. Theyinterpreted this unconformity as subaerial in origin. Thus, implying a complete exposure of theMediterranean at the end of the Messinian.Our findings together with Bertoni and Cartwright's (2007) findings support the idea of desiccation,erosion and a eurohaline event between the Messinian evaporates and the Pliocene Marinetransgression.Along the coastline, up to a distance of 20 km westward, the seismic cross section shows a 300-500m deep, box-shaped canyon (Figs. 18 and 21).5.3 The Ashdod CanyonThe Ashdod Canyon is the most prominent feature in the southeastern Levant margin, extendingfrom the present-day coastal area to a distance of about 100 km westward (Figs. 16 to 20). Theexistence of an Early Tertiary Ashdod Canyon was suggested by Buchbinder et al. (2005) based onthe findings of a few hundred meters of Oligocene sandstones and conglomerate beds in seven wellsdrilled in the Ashdod area near the coastline. The offshore seismic and well data reveal aspectacular erosional feature (Fig. 24) which, similar to the Afiq Canyon, it is associated with threephases of significant incision events: during the Early Oligocene, Late Tortonian and latest Miocene(top Messinian).The base Oligocene incision is most pronounced at the edge of the uplifted fold belt about 50 kmoffshore. The seismic data reveal a 5-10 km wide and up to 1 km deep canyon, incised into theMesozoic section (Figs, 16 and 24a,b). The Hanaha-1 borehole, drilled near the center of the canyonpenetrated a lower Oligocene canyon-fill overlaying the lower Cretaceous Gevar’am Formation.The canyon terminates into the basin, in the west, beyond the Syrian Arc fold belt (Fig. 16).Relatively minor or no incision was observed in the area east of the Hanaha-1 borehole and thepresent-day coastline (Fig. 16). Along the coastline the seismic record shows a wide canyon, several
- 44 -SWHanaha-1NE SW NE SW Hof Ashdod-1 NEPlio-PleistoceneMessinian saltM.-U.MioceneTWT(ms)Oligocene-L. MioceneCretaceousCretaceousa b cFigure 24: Three seismic profiles (a, b, c) running across the Ashdod Canyon. See location in Figures 16 to 18. Profiles (a) and(b) are located in the western part of the canyon. In this area the base Oligocene incision resulted with the formation of about1000 m deep canyon, whereas the Middle Miocene and base Messinian canyons are only a few hundred meters deep (a, b).Profile (c) is located at a proximal part of the canyon along the present-day coastline. In this area the base Oligocene canyon isrelatively shallow while deep incision is observed on the base Messinian unconformity. Note the lateral shift in the position ofthe canyon during the three incision episodes.
Page 1 and 2: The Oligo-Miocene deepwater system
Page 4 and 5: ITable of contentPageAbstract …
Page 6: IIIFigure 16: Depth map of the base
Page 9 and 10: - 2 -Oligo-Miocene sands were depos
Page 11 and 12: - 4 -The discoveries of the early 2
Page 13 and 14: - 6 -the southeastern part of the b
Page 15 and 16: - 8 -Legend2D survey A2D survey B2D
Page 17 and 18: - 10 -2.2 Seismic dataThe seismic i
Page 19 and 20: - 12 -conditions, and possibly sedi
Page 21 and 22: - 14 -3.3.2 Lower Oligocene sedimen
Page 23 and 24: - 16 -Druckman, 2006; Bertoni and C
Page 25 and 26: - 18 -aSWNETWT (ms)bSWHanaha-1NEMav
Page 27 and 28: - 20 -aNWSETWT (ms)bYam West-1Ziqim
Page 29 and 30: - 22 -WETWT (ms)aYam Yafo-1multiple
Page 31 and 32: - 24 -NW SEaYam West-2Plio-Pleistoc
Page 33 and 34: - 26 -A third incision surface, mar
Page 35 and 36: - 28 -4.2.2 Deep, central part of t
Page 37 and 38: - 30 -10812591167Figure 13: Time st
Page 39 and 40: - 32 -10812591167Figure 15: Time st
Page 41 and 42: - 34 -HaifaQishon302829AtlitCaesare
Page 43 and 44: - 36 -Figure 19: Depth map on the t
Page 45 and 46: - 38 -SW NEAfiq Canyon Ashdod Canyo
Page 47 and 48: - 40 -The Beer Sheva-Afiq Canyon lo
Page 49: - 42 -SWNE SW NE SW NEPlio-Pleistoc
Page 53 and 54: - 46 -BMSL1400m.1500200025003000Han
Page 55 and 56: - 48 -WE W E NW SEPlio-PleistoceneC
Page 57 and 58: - 50 -W EPlio-PleistoceneMessinian
Page 59 and 60: - 52 -S NPlio-PleistoceneM.-U. Mioc
Page 61 and 62: Figure 31: Stratigraphic section al
Page 63 and 64: - 56 -W ELower-slope and basin floo
Page 65 and 66: - 58 -SlopeSusita + En-GevsandsShel
Page 67 and 68: - 60 -In the Hadera Canyon the seis
Page 69 and 70: - 62 -Additional mechanisms for tra
Page 71 and 72: - 64 -The existence of channel fill
Page 73 and 74: - 66 -SlopePartly Uplifted ?Hordos
Page 75 and 76: - 68 -Oligo-Miocene sands were depo
Page 77 and 78: - 70 -Druckman, Y., Conway, B.H., E
Page 79 and 80: - 72 -Neev, D., 1960, A pre-Neogene

The Oligo-Miocene deepwater system of the Levant Basin

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