Evolution of the Paran drainage basin and its relation to the Plio-Pleistocene history of the Arava Rift western margin, Israel

The Plio-Pleistocene history of the Paran drainage basin was studied based on geological mapping and paleogeographical reconstruction of the basin and the adjacent areas. In the Early Pliocene, as a result of a tectonic deformation, the region west of the Arava Valley was uplifted, simultaneously with the formation of the Dead Sea and the northern Arava as deep elongated depressions. The development of this region can be divided into two main phases: (a) the formation of the paleo-Paran basin during the Pliocene and (b) the formation of the present Paran basin in the Early Pleistocene. The paleo-Paran basin drained large areas in eastern Sinai and the Negev (southern Israel) towards the northern Arava Valley and the Dead Sea basin via Nahal Neqarot. A major tributary of the paleo-Paran (the "Edom River") drained part of the Edom Mountains (southern Jordan), located east of the Dead Sea Rift (DSR). After achieving relative geomorphic stability during the Early Pliocene, a coarse clastic continental sequence-termed the Arava Fm.-was accumulated, locally reaching a thickness of more than 100 m. The present Paran basin was formed during the Early Pleistocene, as a result of a major tectonic phase. Faulting and tilting is recorded along a 60-80-km-wide belt located on the western flank of the DSR. As a result, the paleo-Paran basin was uplifted and tilted to the east, while the Arava Valley subsided. The subsidence along the central Arava segment exceeded 500-700 m and was accompanied by simultaneous uplifting of about 200 m of the western part of the southern Negev relative to the central Sinai basin. At this stage, the DSR reached its present morphotectonic configuration. During the erosive phase that followed the tectonic activity, a new outlet of the Paran drainage basin to the central Arava Valley was formed and the basin reached its present configuration.