AVA analysis in the eastern Mediterranean

In the context of a reflection seismic AVA (Amplitude vs. Angle) analysis, data from the western Mediterranean Ridge have been analysed to obtain estimates on the reflection coefficient and the AVA gradient. The study put particular emphasis on the role of the Messinian evaporites, which display a characteristic amplitude signature on the AVA-sections. From the seismic attributes obtained from the Zoeppritz equations it could be infered that the material contrast at the salt/sediment interface of the Messinian evaporites is sufficient to generate converted waves, which are strong enough to survive the processes of NMO-correction and CMP stack. This mode conversion could subsequently be modelled by dynamic Ray-tracing to identify which events on the stacked data are likely to be based on converted waves and thus present some pitfalls for an imprudent interpreter.     

Gravity anomalies and crustal shortening in the eastern Mediterranean

Crustal shortening of the ocean floor in the eastern Mediterranean is recognized by a marked thickening of the sedimentary layer seaward of the Hellenic and Calabrian island arcs. Steep gradients and large negative free-air anomalies in the gravity field along with a highly uniform, low regional heat flow are manifestations of the thickened crust. Bodies of recently deformed sediment in and seaward of the Hellenic Trough reveal the style, polarity, and dynamics of the thickening mechanism.

A linear buried anticlinal structure, inferred from analysis of surface ship gravity profiles, may mark the site of contemporary intrabasinal underthrusting. The distribution of earthquakes beneath the Mediterranean Ridge supports the interpretation that the Anaximander, Ptolomy, and Strabo Mountains are features comparable to large basement nappes. Cyprus is one such structure, offset to the south, where the oceanic crust and part of the upper mantle have been involved in the décollement.     

Collisional emplacement history of the Naga-Andaman ophiolites and the position of the eastern Indian suture

Dismembered late Mesozoic ophiolites occur in two parallel belts along the eastern margin of the Indian Plate. The Eastern Belt, closely following the magmatic arc of the Central Burma Basin, coincides with a zone of high gravity. It is considered to mark a zone of steeply dipping mafic–ultramafic rocks and continental metamorphic rocks, which are the locus of two closely juxtaposed sutures. In contrast, the Western Belt, which follows the eastern margin of the Indo-Burma Range and the Andaman outer-island-arc, broadly follows a zone of negative gravity anomalies. Here the ophiolites occur mainly as rootless subhorizontal bodies overlying Eocene–Oligocene flyschoid sediments. Two sets of ophiolites that were accreted during the Early Cretaceous and mid-Eocene are juxtaposed in this belt. These are inferred to be westward propagated nappes from the Eastern Belt, emplaced during the late Oligocene collision between the Burmese and Indo-Burma-Andaman microcontinents.Ophiolite occurrences in the Andaman Islands belong to the Western Belt and are generally interpreted as upthrust oceanic crust, accreted due to prolonged subduction activity to the west of the island arc. This phase of subduction began only in the late Miocene and thus could not have produced the ophiolitic rocks, which were accreted in the late Early Eocene.     

Contrasting serpentinization processes in the eastern Central Alps

Stable isotope compositions have been determined for serpentinites from between Davos (Arosa-Platta nappe, Switzerland) and the Valmalenco (Italy). D and ¹⁸O values (–120 to –60 and 6–10, respectively) in the Arosa-Platta nappe indicate that serpentinization took place on the continent at relatively low temperatures in the presence of limited amounts of metamorphic fluids that contained a component of meteoric water. One sample of chrysotile has a ¹⁸O value of 13 providing evidence of high W/R ratios and low formation temperature of lizardite-chrysotile in this area. In contrast, relatively high D values (–42 to –34) and low ¹⁸O values (4.4–7.4) for serpentine in the eastern part of the Valmalenco suggest a serpentinization process that took place at moderate temperatures in fluids that were dominated by ocean water. The antigorite in the Valmalenco is the first reported example of continental antigorite with an ocean water signature. An amphibole sample from a metasomatically overprinted contact zone to metasediments (D=-36) indicates that the metasomatic event also took place in the presence of ocean water. Lower D values (–93 to –60) of serpentines in the western part of the Valmalenco suggest a different alteration history possibly influenced by fluids associated with contact metamorphism. Low water/rock ratios during regional metamorphism (and metasomatism) have to be assumed for both regions.     

Crustal structure of the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean

A seismic refraction/wide-angle reflection experiment was undertaken in the Levant Basin, eastern Mediterranean. Two roughly east–west profiles extend from the continental shelf of Israel toward the Levant Basin. The northern profile crosses the Eratosthenes Seamount and the southern profile crosses several distinct magnetic anomalies. The marine operation used 16 ocean bottom seismometers deployed along the profiles with an air gun array and explosive charges as energy sources. The results of this study strongly suggest the existence of oceanic crust under portions of the Levant Basin and continental crust under the Eratosthenes Seamount. The seismic refraction data also indicate a large sedimentary sequence, 10–14 km thick, in the Levant Basin and below the Levant continental margin. Assuming the crust is of Cretaceous age, this gives a fairly high sedimentation rate. The sequence can be divided into several units. A prominent unit is the 4.2 km/s layer, which is probably composed of the Messinian evaporites. Overlying the evaporitic layer are layers composed of Plio–Pleistocene sediments, whose velocity is 2.0 km/s. The refraction profiles and gravity and magnetic models indicate that a transition from a two layer continental to a single-layer oceanic crust takes place along the Levant margin. The transition in the structure along the southern profile is located beyond the continental margin and it is quite gradual. The northern profile, north of the Carmel structure, presents a different structure. The continental crust is much thinner there and the transition in the crustal structure is more rapid. The crustal thinning begins under western Galilee and terminates at the continental slope. The results of the present study indicate that the Levant Basin is composed of distinct crustal units and that the Levant continental margin is divided into at least two provinces of different crustal structure.     

Middle and Late Quaternary depositional sequences and cycles in the eastern Mediterranean

Although most of the Quaternary sediments of the eastern Mediterranean appear reworked, extensive areas of hemipelagic sediments occur, mainly in the central part of the basin (Mediterranean Ridge). The most obvious character of these muddy sediments is the numerous changes in colour. They result from the organic carbon content as well as from concentration and chemical form of metallic elements (Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn). The succession of coloured layers is arranged into sequences developed between two sharp contacts; a complete sequence involves five lithofacies, from an oxidized layer at the base to a reduced sapropel at the top, and displays progressive internal changes of colour from ochre, beige, greyish-beige, grey and black layers: several sequence-variants (top-truncated, base-truncated, recurrent) are identified. These sequences are a consequence of changes in oceanographic conditions, i.e. from oxidizing to reduced environments, resulting in different organic and mineral contents. Based on detailed studies of Quaternary sediments collected by coring, a synthesized standard succession representative of the ordered sequences in the eastern Mediterranean is proposed, from about 650 000 yr as deduced from the calculated rate of sedimentation of 1·7 mm 1000yr^?1. This succession appears modulated by cyclic events: large-scale periods (200 000 yr) of reduced and oxidized sequences correlate with major alternate phases of flooding and reduced flow of the Nile River during the Quaternary. Subsequent sequences of shorter time-scale (20 000–50 000 yr) results from two factors: heaviest monsoons leading to an increase of the influx of the Nile River and global climatic changes (Eurasian ice sheet meltwater); these two factors act synchronously or independently along the studied time-span. These interplaying factors result in periodic stages of increasingly restricted conditions in the basin and explain the complexity of the eastern Mediterranean succession, at least since 650 000 yr ago.     

Physicochemical processes involved in Cenozoic volcanism in eastern China

Eastern China is a Cenozoic composite volcanic rock province, where volcanic rocks of the tholeiite series, calc-alkali series, Hy-norm-bearing olivine basalt series, Na-alkali series and K-alkali series coexist. Eastern China is separated into the northern and southern volcanic rock regions by the Changzhou-Yueyang old deep fault. Magma generation and magmatic activities in the northern region were controlled by the mantle uplift and old deep faults. These old deep faults were revived and some of them were changed into a multiple rift system due to back-arc expansion. The Bohai Sea depression is situated at the intersection of the Lujiang-Tancheng-Shenyang-Mishan and Zhangjiakou-Tianjin uplift belts of the upper mantle. Eogene (71.5-28.5 Ma) tholeiites largely occur in the central part of the mantle uplift; the well developed Neogene (23.8-2.6 Ma) alkali olivine basalts are distributed in the outer lane of the former and the Quaternary (1.48 Ma-recent) peralkali volcanic rocks are far away from them. In the southern region magma generation and magmatic activities were controlled mainly by plate subduction and three sets of old deep faults. Studies of incompatible elements and REE show that the degree of enrichment of incompatible elements and LREE increases with decreasing age, increasing source depth and decreasing degree of partial melting of the upper mantle. This presumably is an indication of a rapid uplifting and then waning magmatic hearth with gradually decreasing temperature, accompanied with down-cutting of the lithospheric faults. We call such a process “a reverse process of magma generation”. And the opposite process of the magmatic evolution of the East African rift in Kenya can be called “a positive process of magma generation”.     

Terrestrial stable isotope records of Late Quaternary paleoclimates in the eastern Mediterranean region

Terrestrial stable isotope records (¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, and D/H ratios) of late Quaternary paleoclimates in the eastern Mediterranean region are reviewed. Significant paleoclimatic reconstructions come from a variety of isotopic studies. Paleogroundwaters, although they cannot be accurately dated, show oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions highly depleted in heavier isotopes compared to modern meteoric waters in arid regions of southern Israel, Sinai and northeastern Africa and attest to a major difference in climatic regime some time in the Pleistocene. Th-U dating of land snails showing a similar ¹⁸O depletion indicates ages of 100,000 yr and ≥300,000 yr for this climatic regime in the Negev Desert of southern Israel. Carbon isotope records of organic matter have not been studied extensively in the region, except for the record of Holocene land snails in the Negev. These document a southward shift in pure C₃ plant communities in the middle and early Holocene relative to their present distribution and indicate wetter conditions at those times. An oxygen isotope curve for the Holocene, reflecting changes in the isotopic composition of precipitation, has been established from analysis of carbonate materials—land snail shells and speleothems. The curve indicates a depletion of ca. 2‰ in ¹⁸O centered around 7000 cal yr bp, with modern levels being reached by 5000 cal yr bp. Carbon isotope analysis of soil carbonates in paleosols developed in loess in the Negev show the existence of dramatic north–south climatic gradients at the times of formation of the soils (ca. 13,000, 28,000, and ≥37,000 ¹⁴C yr bp), as occur also today due to the waning influence of Mediterranean to the south. Some isotopic methods, widely used in other regions, have received little or no attention in the eastern Mediterranean region. These include oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in wood, phosphate oxygen and organic carbon in bones and teeth, and carbon in soil organic matter.     

The Late Cretaceous palaeolatitude of the Neotethyan spreading axis in the eastern Mediterranean region

A compilation of available palaeomagnetic data from the Troodos (Cyprus) and Baër–Bassit (Syria) ophiolitic terranes of the eastern Mediterranean Tethyan orogenic belt is presented. The ophiolites represent fragments of oceanic lithosphere generated at a Neotethyan spreading axis in the Late Cretaceous, although debate continues over the tectonic setting of this spreading axis and its position within the eastern Mediterranean palaeogeography. Two types of model reconstructions have been proposed: Type 1—the ophiolites formed in a southerly Neotethyan basin by spreading above an oceanic subduction zone. The Baër–Bassit ophiolite was then emplaced a relatively short distance (tens of kilometers) southwards on to the Arabian continental margin, leaving the Troodos ophiolite isolated in an intra-oceanic setting to the west; and Type 2—the ophiolites formed in a northerly Neotethyan basin by spreading at a ‘normal’ oceanic ridge, with subsequent large-scale thrusting (hundreds of kilometers) to the south of emplaced ophiolites over microcontinental fragments to reach their present positions. Palaeomagnetic determination of the palaeolatitude of the Neotethyan spreading axis is, therefore, of considerable interest.Previous palaeomagnetic analyses have demonstrated the presence of significant, and in some cases extreme, relative tectonic rotations of a variety of origins in both ophiolites. To allow palaeomagnetic data from these rotated units to be combined, an inclination-only formulation of the palaeomagnetic tilt test is employed. This provides unequivocal evidence that both ophiolites retain pre-deformational remanent magnetizations, which are interpreted as original ocean-floor magnetizations acquired close to the time of crustal formation in the Late Cretaceous. The mean inclinations of 37.0±2.6° for the Troodos terrane and 41.1±3.4° for the Baër–Bassit terrane indicate respective palaeolatitudes for the spreading axes of 20.6°N±1.8° and 23.6°N±2.5°, consistent with a Late Cretaceous position between the Arabian and Eurasian margins. These data, together with a well-defined palaeolatitude of 25.5°N±4.5° for the eastern Pontides previously reported in the literature, provide constraints which must be incorporated in any successful tectonic reconstruction of the eastern Mediterranean Tethys. The implications of these constraints for Type 1 and 2 models are discussed using a series of plate tectonic cross-sections constructed along a line extending northwards from the Arabian continental margin. In the absence of palaeomagnetic data from Late Cretaceous rocks of the eastern Taurides, however, it is presently impossible to use these palaeolatitudinal constraints to resolve the root zone debate on a purely palaeomagnetic basis. Solutions which satisfy the constraints may be found for both types of model reconstruction. Additional, published field-based geological considerations, however, strongly support models in which the Troodos and Baër–Bassit (and other southerly) ophiolites were generated in a southern Neotethyan basin, rather than those involving generation in a northerly basin and subsequent large-scale thrust displacement to the south.     

Karst groundwater resources in the countries of eastern Mediterranean: the example of Lebanon

The hydrogeological study of some karst systems in Lebanon shows important storage capacity, up to 27 billions m³ for Zarka system, the spring of Orontes River. Their geological and morphological settings, as well as their hydrodynamic function, show structures developed below the level of present springs, probably up to several hundreds meters at depth. Since Miocene, those carbonate formations were subject to a remarkable instability of their base levels. Variations of sea level, of which the Messinian salinity crisis is the major phase, and effects of the alpine orogenesis, combined with climate variations to develop complex, multiphased karst systems. Karstification occurs frequently in the whole formation, often deeply below sea level or underneath sediment filling of continental basins. The surface karst landscape is often intensely eroded. Those multiple, superimposed karst phases give the carbonate aquifers their large extension and storage capacity. These karst aquifers show the typical easy restoration of storage. They have the ability to bear large interannual recharge variations and support exploitation under high pumping rates. However, these aquifers have some disadvantages for sustainable management. In some regions, successful boreholes, which allow high pumping rates also induce uncontrolled exploitation. Another consequence is natural seawater intrusion, as well as the submarine discharge of fresh groundwater, in coastal aquifers. Those carbonate aquifers are subject to important economical stress which jeopardizes their durability. The systematic study and understanding of carbonate aquifers in Eastern Mediterranean is a preliminary condition to any integrated and sustainable management of water resources. Studies in progress in Lebanon may serve as examples to the whole region.     

Anthropization of groundwater resources in the Mediterranean region: processes and challenges

A comprehensive overview is provided of processes and challenges related to Mediterranean groundwater resources and associated changes in recent decades. While most studies are focused thematically and/or geographically, this paper addresses different stages of groundwater exploitation in the region and their consequences. Examples emphasize the complex interactions between the physical and social dimensions of uses and evolution of groundwater. In natural conditions, Mediterranean groundwater resources represent a wide range of hydrogeological contexts, recharge conditions and rates of exploitation. They have been actively exploited for millennia but their pseudo-natural regimes have been considerably modified in the last 50 years, especially to satisfy agricultural demand (80% of total water consumption in North Africa), as well as for tourism and coastal cities. Climate variability affects groundwater dynamics but the various forms of anthropization are more important drivers of hydrological change, including changes in land use and vegetation, hydraulic works, and intense pumpings. These changes affect both the quantity and quality of groundwater at different scales, and modify the nature of hydrogeological processes, their location, timing, and intensity. The frequent cases of drastic overexploitation illustrate the fragility of Mediterranean groundwater resources and the limits of present forms of management. There is no easy way to maintain or recover sustainability, which is often threatened by short-term interests. To achieve this goal, a significant improvement in hydrogeological knowledge and closer collaboration between the various disciplines of water sciences are indispensable.     

Paleoclimatic record of a long deep sea core from the eastern Mediterranean

A deep-sea core over 16 m long from the crestal area of the Mediterranean Ridge has been investigated with different techniques, including quantitative micropaleontology, stable isotopes (measured on the epipelagic species Globigerinoides ruber and on the mesopelagic species Globorotalia inflata), and clay mineralogy. The resulting record of climatic fluctuations can be cross correlated to other Mediterranean cores by means of isochronous lithologies (tephra layers and sapropels). The climatic record of the Mediterranean is similar in character, phase, and chronology to the records investigated in the equatorial Pacific and in the Caribbean. Isotope stages 1 to 17 have been recognized. Cyclically repeated stagnant cycles resulting in sapropel deposition complicate both the isotopic and the faunal signal. The isotopic investigations reveal that the temperature change in the surface layers of the eastern Mediterranean was no greater than 8°C in the late “glacial” Pleistocene. The chronostratigraphic and biostratigraphic interpretation of Core KS09 indicate that the mean sedimentation rate was 2.4 cm/1000 years, a value very close to the 2.5 cm/1000 years calculated for the entire Quaternary section at DSDP Site 125, also located in the crestal area of the Mediterranean Ridge in the Ionian Basin. The base of KS09 is likely to be very close to the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary dated at 0.7 my.     

Micro- and macroseismicity of the Dead Sea rift and off-coast eastern Mediterranean

The seismicity of Israel has been evaluated from documented earthquake records of the present century and two years of routine monitoring of microearthquake activity by means of eleven stations spreading from the Gulf of Elat to northern Galilee.

The Dead Sea rift asserts itself as the tectonic feature that accounts for the seismicity of our region. The activity peaks at zones where the fault branches sideways or at a junction with other fault systems. In particular, the crescent fault of Wadi Faria seems to be a zone of high strain accumulation. This is probably the site of many historical earthquakes which caused inland and coastal damage. It is thus found that the most active fault today which constitutes the greatest seismic risk to Israeli metropolitan areas extends along the Dead Sea rift from 31.2°N to 33.4°N.

The seismicity around the Dead Sea conforms with the proposed movement along en-echelon faults. While the southwest segment is presently inactive, most of the seismic activity there is limited to the neighbourhood of its eastern shore with extreme seismicity at its southern tip near the prehistorical site of Bab-a-Dara'a. The seismicity of the Arava is much lower than the Jordan-Dead Sea section. The seismicity of the Israeli coast was found to be somewhat higher than that of the Arava.     

Collisional plateaus

In the fifteen years since the importance of collisional plateaus with thickened continental crust began to be recognized as one of the inevitable consequences of the processes of plate tectonics, rapid progress in their understanding has come from studies of the world's only active terminal collision zones in the Himalayan-Tibetan and Turkish-Iranian plateaus.Ancient collisional plateaus are being recognized throughout the geological record (back to 3.8 Ga) from the occurrence of extensive areas (typically > 500,000 km²) of 8 kbar metamorphism in granulite facies or from the occurrence of extensive areas of higher level minimum-melt composition granite rocks whose isotopic signatures indicate reactivation of existing continental crust rather than addition of new crust from the mantle at the time of collision. Recognition of strike-slip faulting in the ancient collisional plateau areas indicates that “tectonic escape” may have been as important in the past as it is today.Earth may not be the only planet on which collisional plateaus are important. The highlands of Venus (approximately 7% of the surface with elevations over 1.5 km above mean planetary radius) can only exist as a result of crustal thickening, and not as a product of lithospheric thinning. Most of these highlands can be explained by models involving volcanic construction. However, the highest peaks, including Maxwell Montes, the highest mapped area of Venus rising over 10 km above mean planetary radius, require much greater crustal thickening to support them than can reasonably be explained by a volcanic mechanism. Geological features of Maxwell Montes inferred from radar images suggest some analogy between Maxwell Montes and the Tibetan plateau.It is somewhat paradoxical that extensional tectonics are commonly associated with continental collision, and that collision-related rifts may be the only sites where the uppermost layers of a collision-thickened crust are preserved from erosion. Extensional stress fields are generated during continental collision, primarily in areas associated with strike-slip faulting and “tectonic escape”. Additional extensional stresses are gravitationally generated associated with the topography and thickened crust in a collision zone. Tectonically thickened crust is particularly susceptible to rifting as its lithosphere is weak as a result of heating associated with magmatism. This lithosphere is also compositionally weak because of the relatively thick crust, dominated by a weak quartz rheology, and thin mantle lithosphere, dominated by a strong olivine rheology, in comparison with a lithosphere with a more normal crustal thickness. Thus, the common association of rifts and collision zones may be a consequence of both stresses generated during collision and modification of the lithosphere by collision.     

The influence of late Quaternary stagnations on clay sedimentation in the eastern Mediterranean sea

Late Quaternary sapropels of the eastern Mediterranean differ from normal sediments in their clay mineral composition. Clay minerals in the sapropels studied here are only slightly affected, or are not affected at all by diagenetic alteration. This permits the observation of primary differences. During stagnation periods, the contribution of remote or accessory sources was reduced or even absent. Different circulation patterns and, particularly, a general decline in deeper water currents activity might be held responsible for the observed differences in the clay mineral composition of sapropels and normal sediments.

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Zusammenfassung Die quartären Sapropele des östlichen Mittelmeeres unterscheiden sich von den normal marinen Sedimenten in ihrer Tonmineralzusammensetzung. Die hier untersuchten Tone der Sapropele zeigen nur geringe oder gar keine diagenetischen Veränderungen. Diese Tatsache erlaubt, Rückschlüsse auf primäre Unterschiede zu ziehen. Während der Stagnationsperioden war die Zufuhr von Tonen aus entfernten oder weniger wichtigen Liefergebieten stark vermindert. Unterschiedliche Zirkulation, besonders eine geringere Aktivität der Tiefenströmungen, scheinen die Ursache für die beobachteten Unterschiede in der Tonmineralzusammensetzung zwischen Sapropel- und normal-marinen Sedimenten

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Résumé Les sapropels quaternaires de la Méditerranée orientale se distinguent des vases communes par la composition des minéraux argileux. Les argiles des sapropels examinés sont peu affectés par l'altération diagénétique, ce qui permet l'observation de différences primaires.On a conclu, que pendant les périodes de stagnation, la contribution des argiles provenant des sources éloignées ou secondaires, a été réduite ou même interrompue. Différentes conditions de circulation et, avant tout, la réduction d'activité des courants profonds, sont probablement responsables des différences observées dans la composition des minéraux argilezx des sapropels et des vases communes.

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Characteristics of sea-cliff erosion induced by a strong winter storm in the eastern Mediterranean

Changes in sea-cliff morphologies along the 30-km-long Sharon Escarpment segment of Israel's weakly cemented Mediterranean eolianite cliff line were analyzed to gain quantitative insights into erosion characteristics associated with a high-energy winter storm (10–20 year return interval). Ground-based repeat LiDAR measurements at five sites along the cliff line captured perturbations of cliff stability by basal wave scouring during the storm, subsequent post-storm gravity-driven slope failures in the cliff face above, and return of the system to transient stability within several months. Post-storm erosion, which amounted to 70% of the total volume of cliff erosion documented, resulted in dramatic local effects of up to 8 m of cliff-top retreat. And yet, at the larger scale of the 30-km cliff line examined, erosion during the storm and the year that followed affected less than 4% of the cliff length and does not appear to be above the average cliff-length annual erosion implied by previously published decadal-scale retreat rates along this sea cliff. Our results do not support a direct association between strong storm events and elevated erosion and retreat at the cliff-line scale.     

Late Quaternary sapropel sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Faunal variations and chronology

Distinctive planktonic foraminiferal assemblages which characterize particular late Quaternary sapropel layers in deep basin sediments from the eastern Mediterranean Sea have been identified using cluster analysis. Three distinct clusters allow for identification and intercore correlation of the nine sapropels deposited during the last 250,000 yr. Cluster 1, representing sapropel layers S1 and S9, exhibits low abundances of Neogloboquadrina dutertrei and high abundances of Globigerinoides ruber; Cluster 2, which groups S3, S5, and S7, contains high abundances of G. ruber, N. dutertrei, and Globigerina bulloides, and Cluster 3, which includes samples from S4, S6, and S8, is marked by extremely abundant N. dutertrei and G. bulloides, and rare G. ruber. Analysis of sedimentation rates in 14 cores reveals the following approximate ages for the sapropel layers: S2 = 52,000 yr B.P.; S3 = 81,000–78,000 yr B.P.; S4 = 100,000–98,000 yr B.P.; and S5 = 125,000–116,000 yr B.P. As previously suggested, sedimentation rates on the Mediterranean Ridge were determined to be relatively constant during the last 127,000 yr. In contrast, basin sedimentation rates have fluctuated markedly from lower rates during interglacial stage 5 to higher rates during the last glacial episode. These glacial/interglacial differences are most pronounced in the northern Ionian Basin, because of increased terrigenous sediment deposition during glacial episodes. Unusually high biogenic sedimentation rates occurred in an arc south of Crete during the deposition of sapropel S5, probably due to higher productivity in this region.