Abstract This study deals with the sedimentary evolution, tectonic configuration and global imprints of a Cenomanian–Turonian carbonate system located in northern Israel, on the central part of the Levant margin of the north Arabian Plate. Detailed sampling of field sections, mesoscopic features, petrography and microfacies form the database for this study. Facies units are integrated into high- and low-order cycles that comprise a sequence stratigraphic model. Two palaeo-highs, separated by a subsiding trough, all striking east–NE, govern the pattern of carbonate deposition in northern Israel. An additional subsiding region extended northward into Lebanon. Eustatic and palaeoenvironmental imprints are represented by earliest Cenomanian subaerial exposure; Early Cenomanian maximum flooding and oxygenation of hypoxic sea-floor; Middle Cenomanian high-stand progradation followed by forced regression and mass transport; Middle Cenomanian subaerial exposure; Late Cenomanian eutrophication during sea-level rise; Late Cenomanian subaerial exposure; latest Cenomanian–Turonian eutrophication and gradual development of the OAE-2 (oceanic anoxic event). A Late Cenomanian eustatic rise was locally masked by uplift and subaerial exposure. We conclude that the tectono-sedimentary regime of northern Israel represents an east–NE branch-off of the depositional strike from the north–south striking Levant margin, and that the carbonate system of this region was strongly influenced by eustasy and palaeoceanographic trends of the Tethys.

During the Quaternary the Jordan rift valley , 10 km wide, constituted a main accumulative basin for river deposits and lavas derived from the adjacent uplifted mountains of East Galilee and Hauran-Golan. The Quaternary clastic and volcanic fills interfingered with sediments of graben lakes in at least three major cycles. The thickness of the Quaternary fluvial-limnic-volcanic fill attains many hundred meters. Still unknown is the Lower Villafranchian stage that followed the Proto-Pleistocene breakdown of the graben. It is safe to assume that gravels were washed into the graben and formed basal conglomerates; then an initial lake formed in which the fluviatile and limnic sediments of the Middle and Upper Villafranchian (including Abbevillian) Ubeidiya formation were deposited. These cycles occur again in the Middle Pleistocene as Naharayim formation and Lower Lacustrine beds of the Hula formation, as well as in the Upper Pleistocene Lisan formation. Unconformities and disconformities resulting from graben movements enable us to discern better the different Quaternary subdivisions. A clear stratigraphic distinction was also provided by the youngest lavas of the Middle Pleistocene Yarmuk, Korazim, and Hasbani basalt where overlain by Upper Pleistocene sediments. Thus it is to the tectonic catastrophes that one may attribute the disappearance, if not the total extinction, of the Villafranchian land mammals such as Archidiskon , Hipparion , Machairodus, Leptobos , etc., or their migration to Africa, via the Suez isthmus, such as was the case with Giraffa and Rhinoceros. The most decisive crisis during or after the inter-Pleistocene “revolution” occurred among the Hominidae. Sinanthropus or Pithecanthropus of the Villafranchian Ubeidiya formation is replaced in the Middle-Upper Pleistocene by Neanderthaloid and finally by the Homo sapiens types discovered in many caves in Galilee and in the Carmel. It was principally Paleolithic man who populated the caves. Men of the Villafranchian pebble culture, however, lived in the open air, as did (after the Palaeolithic) the first agricultural settlers of the Natufian-Neolithic.

Abstract A one kilometer long roadcut exposing Santonian chalk along the western monocline of the Fari'a anticlinorium, central Israel, was examined in the vicinity of a main normal fault in order to study possible effects of structural control over cementation. The fault is replaced in the chalk by a series of secondary faults. Where cut by secondary faults the country rock consists of soft friable chalk and the fault surfaces are associated with thick calcite veins. Where unaffected by that fault system the chalk is hard and shattered. Pure calcite from the veins was found to be characteristic of meteoric water (δ 13 C = −5%e PDB; δ 18 O = — 9%c PDB; Sr 2+ = 300). The soft chalk was found to be characteristic of sea water in respect of the above parameters, with relatively high insoluble residue, whereas the hard chalk was found to have intermediate values with relatively low insoluble residue. The soft chalk underwent flushing and dissolution of calcium carbonate by meteoric water drained efficiently by the secondary faults. The dissolved calcium carbonate crystallized partially as thick veins and partially as sparry calcite cement in the matrix of the nonfaulted chalk thus hardening it. A further deformation of the area induced twinning of calcite along with brittle deformation in the veins and intense fracturing and some twinning of sparry calcite crystals in the hard chalk.