Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T06:58:51.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impact of Climatic Change on an Arid Watershed: Nahal Yael, Southern Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William B. Bull  and
Asher P. Schick
William B. Bull
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
Asher P. Schick
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Nahal Yael basin is underlain chiefly by schist, amphibolite, and granite. Thin (generally <1 m thick), grussy colluvium which covered the lower portions of granitic hillslopes in the late Pleistocene has now been stripped completely, causing marked contrasts in outcrop morphologies, even where there is no contrast of fracture density or petrologic characteristics. Formerly mantled slopes are now smooth and crumbly, and lack desert varnish. Previously unmantled slopes are rough and craggy, and varnished but little weathered. Such stripping suggests a change from a semiarid to a drier and/or warmer climate. Slopes underlain by amphibolite responded similarly to the climatic change, but the amphibolite was more deeply weathered, and the colluvium was only partially stripped. The least stripping of colluvium occurred on schist hillslopes, partly because schist outcrops require more rain to generate runoff, and partly because angular blocks of schist require larger flows for transport, compared to other slope lithologies. The stream subsystem responded to the climatically induced changes in the discharge of water and sediment from the hillslopes. Increase in sediment yield caused valley alluviation in the early Holocene, and a decrease in sediment yield later in the Holocene caused entrenchment of the valley fill. More granite and amphibolite gravel-size particles are transported now than when the hillslopes were extensively mantled. Dense networks of trails are not common on Holocene geomorphic surfaces, but are present on remnants of Pleistocene surfaces.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , March 1979 , pp. 153 - 171
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ben-Arieh, Y., (1964). A tentative water balance estimate of the Lisan Lake. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences. 13, 42-47.Google Scholar
Bowman, D., (1974). Geomorphology of river terraces on the western bank of the Dead Sea—Geomorphology of the shore terraces of the Late Pleistocene Lisan Lake. Gerson, R., Inbar, M., Field Study Program for the International Symposium on Geomorphic Processes in Arid Environments. 40-51.Google Scholar
Brakenridge, G.R., (1978). Evidence for a cold, dry full-glacial climate in the American southwest. Quaternary Research. 9, 22-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, W.B., (1974). Effects of Holocene climate on arid fluvial systems, Whipple Mountains, California. American Quaternary Association Biennial conference discussant paper. 64.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., (1975). Patterns of environmental change in the Near East during late Pleistocene and early Holocene times. Wendorf, F., Marks, A.E., Problems in Prehistory: North Africa and the Levant. SMU Press, Dallas, 389-410.Google Scholar
Gerson, R., Yair, A., (1975). Geomorphic evolution of some small desert watersheds and certain paleoclimatic implications (Santa Katherina area, southern Sinai). Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie N.F.. Supplementband 19, 66-82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, A., (1971). Climatic and vegetational developments in northeastern Israel during upper Pleistocene-Holocene times. Pollen et Spores. 13, 255-278.Google Scholar
Jennings, J.N., (1968). Tafoni. Fairbridge, R.W., Encyclopedia of Geomorphology. Reinhold, New York, 1103-1104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, A., (1971). U-series dating of Dead Sea basin carbonates. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 35, 1269-1281.Google Scholar
Neev, D., Emery, K.O., (1967). The Dead Sea, depositional processes and environments of evaporites. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin. 41, 147.Google Scholar
Schick, A.P., (1970). Desert floods—interim results of observations in the Nahal Yael research watershed, southern Israel, 1965–1970. Symposium on the Results of Research on Representative and Experimental Basins. Wellington IAHS Publication 96. 478-493.Google Scholar
Schick, A.P., (1974). Formation and obliteration of desert stream terraces—a conceptual analysis. Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie. Supplementband 21, 88-105.Google Scholar
Schick, A.P., (1977). A tentative sediment budget for an extremely arid watershed in the southern Negev. Doehring, D.O., Geomorphology in Arid Regions. Publications in Geomorphology, Binghamton, New York, 139-163.Google Scholar
Schick, A.P., Sharon, D., (1974). Geomorphology and climatology of arid watersheds. U.S. Army European Research Office Report DAJA-72-C-3874. London.Google Scholar
Sharon, D., (1970). Topography-conditioned variations in rainfall as related to the runoff-contributing areas in a small watershed. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences. 19, 85-89.Google Scholar
Vogel, J.G., Waterbolk, H.T., (1972). Groningen radiocarbon dates, geological samples, Dead Sea series, Israel, Lisan. Radiocarbon. 14, 46-47.Google Scholar
Yair, A., Klein, M., (1973). The influence of surface properties on flow and erosion processes on debris-covered slopes in an arid area. Catena. 1, 1-18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yair, A., Lavee, H., (1974). Areas contributing to runoff on scree slopes in an extreme arid environment, a simulated rainstorm experiment. Gerson, R., Inbar, M., Field Study Program for the International Symposium on Geomorphic Processes in Arid Environments. 81-87.Google Scholar