Holocene sedimentary sources in southern Lebanon, Eastern Mediterranean

This paper describes new clay mineralogical data from southern Lebanon to better understand the origin and dispersal of local and regional fluvial sediments during the Holocene. Data from the Litani watershed, Tyre’s coastline and the city’s ancient northern harbour are compared and contrasted with the results of research undertaken along the Nile and Israeli seaboards. At Tyre, both regional inputs (Litani River, erosion of Eocene and Cretaceous outcrops in the vicinity and reworking of brown/black soils on the Tyrian seaboard) and local sources (erosion of adobe infrastructures, cultural inputs) have been significant components in the infilling of Tyre’s ancient harbour. The high level of variability observed in the up-core clay signatures may reflect Romano-Byzantine deforestation and the use of Cretaceous and Eocene outcrops in local construction. This led to a clear change in the volume and mineralogy of sediment transported into the basin. Off southern Lebanon, the Nile is not a significant contributor to deposition on the inner shelf.