Permian-early Mesozoic tectonism and continental margin formation in Israel and its implications for the history of the Eastern Mediterranean

The Early Mesozoic tectonic reorganization of the Tethys region also affected the Levant area. Here two processes were superimposed: (a) The pattern of long-wavelength vertical motions of the Arabo-Nubian platform changed in the Late Permian when Israel and nearby areas began to subside. (b) Rifting occurred in this subsiding area, probably in several phases: Late Anisian (and Ladinian?), Carnian-Norian, and Liassic. Differential movements reached 2-3 km and magmatism occurred in the Liassic and perhaps also in the Triassic. The tectonism was strongly felt up to 50 km landward of the present coast. The crust was thinned and modified under the present continental margin and in the main rifts. Passive margin conditions were established in Late Liassic times over the previously faulted area. Later in the Jurassic a carbonate shelf was constructed along this subsiding margin; its basinward edge was 1-1.5 km high, which shows that the adjacent SE Mediterranean was already a deep sea. Hence this basin and its passive margin are considered to have been shaped by the Early Mesozoic rifting which is recognized in Israel. The rifting process probably signifies oblique separation of the Tauride block from the Levant part of Gondwana.