Evidence for parallel rifting across the Arabian plate

Schattner U.¹, Ben-Avraham Z.¹, Reshef M.¹, Bar-Am G.² and Lazar M.¹

¹Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Ramat Aviv, 69978, Tel-Aviv, Israel, uris@gaia.tau.ac.il, zvi@terra.tau.ac.il, moshe@luna.tau.ac.il, michael@luna.tau.ac.il

²Oil Fields LTD., 18 Haoman St., 91520, Jerusalem, Israel, oilfield@netvision.net.il

New well data obtained on the continental shelf of the northern Levant margin revealed a unique sedimentary sequence (mid Oligocene-early Miocene), which is absent from the stratigraphic record of the entire eastern Mediterranean basin. Analysis of seismic profiles indicates that the sequence was deposited in a morphotectonic basin, “Haifa basin”, which evolved along the present-day Carmel fault. This basin is interpreted as being part of a larger series of basins, comprising a failed rift along the Qishon-Sirhan trend. The Carmel fault would therefore seem to be related to processes occurring several million years earlier than previously thought. The failed rift evolved in parallel, both spatially and temporally, to the Red Sea-Suez rift. The development of a series of basins in parallel with a young spreading center is a known phenomenon in other regions worldwide; however this is the only known example from the eastern Mediterranean region.