By studying sedimentological cores of a playa at the termination of small (1.7 km2), dune-dammed endorheic basin, this research attempts to reconstruct the late Quaternary paleoenvironment and paleoclimate of the northwestern (NW) Negev desert Israel. The NW Negev, situated along a climatic transect between semi-arid Mediterranean and arid zones, experienced significant environmental fluctuations during the Pleistocene, and possibly during the Holocene. This makes it a key area for investigating the interplay of climate, environment, and human activity.
Specifically, this research aims to demonstrate how climatic fluctuations influence sediment transport mechanisms and interplays between aeolian- and fluvial-dominated processes. Another objective is to identify possible local impacts of extreme climatic events, such as intense rainstorms.
To capture the basin's depositional history, three cores were collected from the damming dune of the playa, the playa-dune contact, and the playa center. Analyses included laser-diffraction particle size distribution and imaging, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for geochemical composition, and relative and absolute dating, using portable OSL (port-OSL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) respectively.
Initial results reveal relative chronological and sedimentological evidence of several distinct depositional periods. We interpreted several geomorphic processes such as an up-basin, erosive, fluvial, loess-dominated regime to a windy, sand-dominated one, culminating with historic times dominated by dust wash and small-scale erosion.