On the paleoclimate of Jordan during the last glacial maximum

The uppermost Pleistocene in the Jordan Valley is represented by two closed lakes: the Lisan Lake (and hence the Lisan Formation 63 to 16-15 ka) and the Damya Lake (Damya Formation 16-15 to 12 ka). The Lisan Formation in the central Jordan Valley consists mainly of varved sediments, is capped by a conspicuous white cliff containing abundant gypsum lamina and is overlain by evaporite-free Damya Formation. The white cliff sediments, thus, represent the driest period of the Lidan-Damya times (63-12 ka). This cold, dry period extended from 23-22 to 16-15 ka BP, which corresponds to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) world-wide and ended by the demise of Lake Lisan. We believe that the cold, dry climate of the Jordan Valley during the LGM, supported by other workers, records a rather similar paleoclimatic trend with the monsoon-affected North African Sahara, Arabia and SE Asia where cold climatic times are associated with drier, low precipitation, and expansion of desert conditions. Consequently, this might indicate a good possibility of the monsoon rains reaching the interior southern Levant during the warm, wet periods. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.