THE JURASSIC FACIES IN THE LEVANT

The Triassic‐Liassic contact in the Levant is a distinct sedimentary break expressed by lateritic palaeosols (Mishhor) or volcanics (Asher). A marine platform carbonate regime began in the Pliensbachian (Ardon‐Nirim) and continued in the Toarcian (Qeren‐Nirim). It was interrupted by Toarcian‐Aalenian clastics in the Negev, adjacent Sinai and along a belt crossing Central Israel into South Anti‐Lebanon (Inmar‐Rosh Pinna). In Northern Israel, Lebanon and North Anti‐Lebanon it persisted without interruption through the Oxfordian (Haifa or Kesroaune). Bajocian lithofacies vary from being mixed in the Negev (Daya), to largely marly in Sinai (Maghara), and to monotonous Bajocian‐Oxfordian platform‐carbonates (Haifa) in the north. Bajocian‐Bathonian lithofacies in the Coastal Plain consist of Haifa carbonates, interwedged by oolitic shoals (Sederot) and spiculites (Barnea). Paralic clastics dominate the early Bathonian in the south (Safa‐Sherif), followed by middle‐late Bathonian micrites and marls (Kehailia/Karmon). The latter characteristic body of shales continues to the Callovian, and in the Coastal Plain separates the Bathonian carbonates from the early Callovian calcarenites (Brur). Callovian‐Oxfordian platform micrites are interwedged by marls and biostromes in the Negev (Zohar‐Beersheba) but may consist of bioherms (Nir'Am) in the Coastal Plain. A complete or partial hiatus of the middle‐late Callovian coincides with the extension of the transgressive onlap of early Oxfordian shales (Kidod) from North Sinai to South Anti‐Lebanon, crossing the Coastal Plain and Central Israel. Kimmeridgian oolites, shales and occasionally sands (Halutza) terminate the Jurassic cycle, ending in a regional uplift followed by subaerial denudation or submarine canyons (Gevar‐Am). The palaeotectonic setting of the Jurassic in Israel and adjacent Sinai, prior to Infra‐Cretaceous truncation, consists of the Negev High which extends to the coastal plain area (Beersheba nose), separating the North Sinai Maghara Basin from the Central Israel‐Hermon trough, the latter being disturbed by Lartet's (1869) Neogene‐Quaternary wrench movement of over 100 km sinistral displacement. A rather shallow platform in the north includes Galilee, Lebanon and North Anti‐Lebanon. The clastics of the Liassic‐Bathonian part of the sequence are connected with the wearing‐down of the Arabian Massif in the south and SE. Yet the thickening of the early Oxfordian shales in the offshore wells points to derivation from some landmass in the west, now hidden beneath the Mediterranean.