Workshop report: Lake KINneret Drilling (KIND) – reconstructing Pliocene–Quaternary hydroclimate and seismic history of the Levant

The southern Levant extends between the hyperarid Sahara–Arabia Desert belt in the south and the temperate Mediterranean climate zone in the north, making the regional hydroclimate extremely sensitive to even small perturbations of global climate. The region further served as a major pathway for the “out-of-Africa” dispersal of fauna, flora, and hominins throughout the Quaternary, as well as for human cultural development from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic. Spanning the length of the Levant is the Dead Sea Transform (DST) that transfers the opening at the Red Sea in the south to the collision at the Taurus Mountains in the north. Pull-apart basins along the DST host the hypersaline Dead Sea and freshwater Lake Kinneret, whose sedimentary records document the regional hydroclimate and seismic history. Lake Kinneret (a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee) is the largest freshwater lake in the Levant, whose precursors have deposited a thick sequence of lacustrine sediments since the late Miocene. Seismic profiles across the tectonically subsiding basin in the middle of the modern lake, as well as existing short sediment cores, indicate that the sedimentary sequences are generally bounded by two N–S-striking longitudinal faults and generally maintain stratigraphic order. The sedimentary column is dominated by primary authigenic calcite, whose chemical and isotopic composition documents regional hydrology and lacustrine conditions from at least the Pliocene. Accordingly, the sedimentary record of Lake Kinneret holds the potential to serve as one of the longest and most highly resolved lacustrine records since the Pliocene, yielding sub-centennial records of hydroclimate, paleoseismicity, geomagnetism, and paleobotanics in a region of fundamental importance for the global understanding of climate change, tectonics, and human evolution. The Lake KINneret Drilling (KIND) project aims to establish an exceptionally long Pliocene–Quaternary chronostratigraphic reference record that will contribute to a meridional synthesis of continental and marine core records along the East African Rift–Dead Sea Transform (EARDST) corridor. Owing to its location, the KIND record will yield transformative contributions to climate modeling and to our understanding of climate change in the eastern Mediterranean, a recognized global warming “hotspot”. Moreover, it will document seismic activity along the DST over long timescales, providing a basis for policymakers to prepare for this potential major hazard to infrastructure and human life. Taken together, the KIND project will provide unique and much-needed records from a tectonically active region that is projected to become increasingly arid over the coming century and that is already burdened by severe geopolitical strife. These records are critical for identifying and quantifying regional climate change patterns, assessing seismic risks, and evaluating the ecological impacts of these processes.