Was There a Massive Sediment Transport System from Northwestern Arabia to the Levant Basin During the Oligo-Miocene?

Seismic reflection profiles that were shot along the Levant Basin and its eastern margin show considerable thickening of the Oligo-Miocene sequence shelf-to-basin transition compared with overlying and underlying stratigraphic units. Numerous erosional channels were depicted in that sequence, suggesting a massive flow system of sedimentary supply from the source in the east to the sink in the west. The dimensions of these channels vary, but together they form a dense submarine system of sediment transport. Reconstruction of the Oligo-Miocene land-to-sea drainage system, from northwestern Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea, was active before the tectonic evolution of the Levant Rift and its uplifted flanks. Consequently, analog experiments showed that the tectonic evolution of the rift under the tectonic regime of oblique extension would generate a simultaneous break-up of detached series of discrete structural basins, which would interconnect gradually. That gradual connection enabled the westwards sediment supply concurrently with the structural evolution of the Levant Rift, but during the late Miocene and the early Pliocene, the growth of the rift and its elevated flanks gradually truncated the westwards fluvial flow. Since the middle Pliocene, only small rivers were left behind to supply Levantine sediments to the Mediterranean, and at present, the Levant Basin derives most of its sediments from the Nile River.