Geomorphology and Paleoclimatology of Lake Lisan Terraces, Dead Sea, Jordan

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Stephan Kempe
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Paläontologie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2006 bis 2011
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 16113225

The levels of closed lakes such as the glacial Lake Lisan/Near East (63-15 ka B.P.) (Kaufman et al.,1992) are a result of changes in evaporation and precipitation.However, in an actively subsiding basin such as the Dead Sea (today at ¿425m) tectonic activity may contribute to the lake level recession. The retreat of Lake Lisan left behind a sequence of deposits and shore terraces. The ability to determine shore line elevations and to date them offers good possibilities to evaluate hydrologic changes, paleoclimatic conditions and tectonic activity during the Last Glacial. Therefore, the main goals of this study are: 1) investigating geometrical and morphological characteristics of Lake Lisan erosional terraces, in the eastern side of the Dead Sea, such as elevation, gradient, width, length etc. and dating these terraces. This investigation should give additional water level data and rates of level retreat for Lake Lisan. Moreover, it helps to construct a model of lake-level regression, which allows to correlate the levels of the lake with paleoclimatic changes; 2) examining the distribution and thickness of the Damya Formation which overlies the Lisan Formation. The results should narrow down the timing of the late Pleistocene period of the lake level high stand and give information on the altitude of the high stand and the paleoenvironment of the subsequent period; 3)Investigating the stratigraphy, lithology and mineralogy of the Lisan Formation, and recording the vertical distribution of syn- and postdepositional sediment sliding horizons, such as slumps and seismites. This shall give indicators of the past water chemistry and of the paleoenvironment conditions of the lake. Moreover, it will provide information on the vertical displacement along E-W faults and indicate whether the retreat of Lake Lisan was affected by tectonic subsidence or not. These questions will be investigated during a field campaign in August-September 2005, when the terraces will be surveyed by GPS and samples for dating and comparative sedimentological analysis will be collected.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen