Mass Flow Event in R/V Mediterranean Explorer cores P12, P17, P22 and/or P29 - ~12500-12000 BCE
Kanari et al. (2015)
examined several
sediment cores
recovered by the research vessel R/V Mediterranean
Explorer from the northern Gulf of Aqaba. The cores —
P12, P17, P22, and P29 — were taken at water depths of
approximately 460, 540, 320, and 280 m below sea level and
were analyzed for
coarse-grained anomalous deposits
interpreted as
mass-transport events.
Ages of these deposits were determined using
radiocarbon dating
of microfossils and shell material including
foraminifera,
gastropods,
and
bivalves.
The authors noted that several anomalous layers appear at
similar stratigraphic levels in multiple cores. According to
Kanari et al. (2015),
when such deposits occur in different cores within the same
age range, the most plausible explanation is a regionally
triggered sediment failure rather than isolated local
processes. They wrote that when anomalous events coincide in
age between different cores, this "is most likely evidence
for mass flow triggered by earthquake events, driving coarse
material from the shallower shelf edge into the deep basin,"
rather than
sporadic slumping or sediment transport caused
by
flash floods.
Within the examined core sequence,
Kanari et al. (2015)
identified one debris-flow event dated to approximately ~12500-12000 BCE
(14.0-14.5
ka
BP).
The coincidence of these coarse deposits in multiple cores
suggests that a strong earthquake in the Gulf of Aqaba
triggered submarine slope failures that transported coarse
sediment from the shelf edge downslope into the deeper basin.