Geochemical evolution of the Dead Sea brine during the last glacial cycle from chemical compositions of interstitial soluble salts

Abstract

The chemical evolution of the brines that filled the Dead Sea Basin during the final phase of the last interglacial and throughout the last glacial period is constructed from the temporal variations in the Na/Cl, Mg/Cl, Br/Cl, and Br/Mg ratios of soluble salts that were extracted from cores that were drilled at the modern Dead Sea floor and from sediments of the last glacial Lisan Fm. that are exposed at the high terraces above the modern Dead Sea (covering the ∼ 100–14 ka period).