Late Tertiary subsidence history of the southern Levant Margin, eastern Mediterranean Sea, and its implications to the understanding of the Messinian Event

Paleodepth reconstruction across the margin off Ashdod suggests the existence of a deep basin in pre-Messinian time which resembles the present one. This implies that the deposition of the evaporites in the study area during the Messinian desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea occurred in a deep basin. It is suggested that the evolution of the southern Levant margin is most probably influenced by three main causes: 1) the Messinian event in late Miocene, 2) the deposition of large volumes of Nile derived sediments since the Pliocene, and 3) the flexural response of the lithosphere to the load from the Nile delta and/or from the uplift of the Judea Mountains. -Authors