The closing of a seaway: ocean water masses and global climate change

The Late Neogene witnessed various major paleoceanographic changes that culminated in intense Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG). The cause and effects of these changes are still debated. We use a multiproxy approach to determine the relative timing of the closure of the Panama gateway, changes in Atlantic circulation, global cooling and ice sheet growth. Benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca records from a Pacific and an Atlantic Site have been produced and are interpreted in terms of bottom water temperatures. These Mg-temperature records are combined with published benthic δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O and erosion records to reconstruct the flow of proto-North Atlantic Deep Water (proto-NADW) over the past 12 Ma. The results suggest that between 12.5 and 10.5 Ma, and again between about 8.5 and 6 Ma, a nutrient-depleted water mass that was colder (by 1–2°C) and fresher than the intervening deep water mass filled the Atlantic basin. This proto-NADW became warmer (by 1°C) and saltier between 6 and 5 Ma, coincident with the restriction of surface water flow through the Central American Seaway. The Mg-temperature records define a subsequent global cooling trend of 3.5°C between 5 Ma and today. Early NHG in the late Miocene was perhaps related to the formation of the relatively cold, fresh proto-NADW. The formation of the warmer and saltier proto-NADW in the early Pliocene may have initially limited Northern Hemisphere ice growth. However, the increased moisture released at high northern latitudes associated with formation of ‘warm’ proto-NADW, coupled with the global temperature decrease of deep (and hence polar surface) waters, likely helped initiate the intense NHG of the Plio–Pleistocene.     

Development of the Inland Sea and its evaporites in the Jordan-Dead Sea Transform based on hydrogeochemical considerations and the geological consequences

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Differences in the distribution of Na/Cl, Br/Cl and Mg/Ca equivalent values suggest a morphotectonic barrier at Marma Feiyad dividing the Tertiary Inland...     

Structure-controlled groundwater flow and salinization paths in the Bet She’an and Harod Valleys,Israel

The Bet She’an and Harod Valleys are regional recipients and mixing zones for groundwater draining to these valleys from a multiple aquifer system. This aquifer system includes two different carbonate aquifers, several groundwater-bearing basalt flows and deep-seated pressurized brine, the upflow of which causes salinization of fresh groundwater bodies. These aquifers drain through two groups of springs. Due to lack of information on the subsurface structure of the valley the flow-paths of groundwater feeding the springs, the initial distribution of salinities along the valley and particularly, the inflow-paths of the brines, have never been understood but were assumed to be fault-controlled. The interpretation of seismic profiles and analysis of gravity anomalies revealed the subsurface structure of the valley and namely the occurrence of a dense network of faults which branch out from those delineating the Jordan-Dead Sea Rift. The faults formed a series of uplifted and down-warped horst-and-graben structures. By joint analysis of structural, hydrological and geochemical evidence, it occurs that groundwater flow-paths leading to the springs emerging in the middle of the Bet She’an Valley are determined by structural elements such as major faults and fault-controlled structures. The penetration of the pressurized Ca-chloride Rift brines and their inflow into fresh groundwater bodies occurs prevalently along the faults outlining the western margins of the Dead Sea Rift Valley and at their intersection with outbranching NW–SE-striking faults.