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Upper Cretaceous oil Shale

In the past few years, we have been engaged in a multidisciplinary research project on oil shale deposits in Israel, that involves collaboration with a group of scientists from Germany (Wilhelm Püttmann and Zsolt Berner) and Israel (Sarit Ashckenazi-Polivoda, Ahuva Almogi Labin and Shimon Feinstein). This research project is aimed at establishing the most detailed paleobiological and paleoceanographic reconstruction of the Levantine upwelling system by integrating high-resolution records of planktic and benthic foraminifera, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen stable isotopes and organic geochemistry. Our research initially focused on the Negev area and in the last couple of years we expanded our research investigation into the Shefela basin, which represents the most distal and among the largest basins in the Levant region.

Paleogeographic reconstruction showing the upwelling belts developed along the southern Tethys margin during the late Campanian and early Maastrichtian. The star marks the location of the A-A’ section (modified after Ashckenazi-Polivoda et al., 2011).

Correlation chart of 8 Upper Cretaceous columnar sections of central to southern Israel, projected onto the A-A’ cross section. The location of each section relative to the ‘Top-Judea’ structural horizon (after Fleischer and Gafsou, 2003) is presented at the bottom. Datum levels 1-23 are explained in Table 2 and within the text. Symbols are presented within the figure. Main datum: an amalgamation of 2 datum levels following a regional unconformity bound between gamma ray datum levels 10 and 13: the base of the P. palpebra Zone (datum level 11), and a drop in the abundance of E. alanwoodi (datum level 12). Lithological units are presented according to their accepted nomenclature in southern Israel (Negev) and their correlated boundaries across the A-A’ cross section. Coni.: Coniacian; Sant.: Santonian; D. con: D. concavata; D. asym: D. asymetrica; G. elev: G. elevata; C. pl: C. plummerae; R. calc: R. calcarata; R. fruc.: R. fructicosa; A. maya.: A. mayaroensis; Pc.: Phosphatic Carbonate Unit; Po.: Porcelanite Unit; Ph.: Phosphorite Unit; GR: gamma ray; API; American Petroleum Institute; TC: total count units; SR: sedimentation rates. Coordinates are in ITM.

Department of geological and Environmental Sciences

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