Volcanic Landscapes in the Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a basaltic plateauBasaltic plateau of about 1000 km2, which declines from 1100 m asl on its northern end to 300–350 m asl on its southern end, above the Sea of GalileeSea of Galilee and the Yarmouk River. It is part of the Harrat Ash Shaam volcanic field, which is the largest volcanic field in western Arabia. The volcanics of the Golan Heights cover a syncline, which is located between the anticlines of Ajlun and Mt. Hermon on its southern and northern sides, respectively. The basaltic section is thickest in the central Golan (up to > 600 m in the eastern Golan, next to the water divide), while it decreases to tens of meters to none toward the south and north. Most of the area is covered by basaltic flows, but the landscape of the eastern and northeastern Golan is dotted by more than 60 cinder conesCinder cones, most of them probably belonging to the last volcanic period, which occurred between 200 and 100 ka. Phreatomagmatic features are relatively scarce, and there are only two cases, which were produced by the interaction of magma with groundwater or with water of a diverted stream. The main water divide is located at the eastern part of the Golan Heights, close to the border between Israel and Syria, dividing between water flowing to the Sea of GalileeSea of Galilee and to the Yarmouk River, which re-joins the water from the Sea of Galilee in the Jordan River. A relatively large fraction of the Golan Heights precipitation forms runoff (15%), while another 16% recharges the regional aquifer, which is usually quite deep (several 100’s m).