Age of Dead Sea Fault

Palynological study of the Arqov and Saad formations of the Negev, in Avdat-1 borehole has allowed comparison with the assemblages of the Umm Irna Formation of the Dead Sea, Jordan. Core 7 of Avdat-1 (Saad Formation) contains common Hamiapollenites dettmannae and Distriatites insolitus indicating that it correlates with the Arabian Peninsula OSPZ5 Biozone and therefore has a likely Roadian–Wordian age, rather than a Westphalian age as previously suggested. The difference in thickness in Permian sediments between Avdat-1, eastern Negev boreholes, and the Umm Irna Formation may be due to greater accommodation space provided by a southwestward extension of the Palmyrid depocenter, or perhaps subsidence related to a fault in a similar position to the present Dead Sea Fault, or a fault ancestral to the Dead Sea Fault. Read more - Stephenson Michael H, Dorit Korngreen, 2020. Palynological correlation of the Arqov and Saad formations of the Negev, Israel, with the Umm Irna Formation of the eastern Dead Sea, Jordan, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 274, 104153