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 ~2250-2050 BCE (4.0-4.2   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.