Raham Conglomerate – new evidence for Neogene tectonism in the southern part of the Dead Sea Rift

Abstract

A newly discovered, mainly continental, deformed, Neogene formation – the Raham Conglomerate – records the early existence of the southern part of the Dead Sea Rift. The field relations, the predominance of clasts derived from formations which have been virtually completely eroded, and the presence of pebbles of Precambrian rocks, all attest that a considerable structural relief – possibly exceeding 2 km – already existed in the Middle (?) Miocene. Brackish marine fossils indicate that an ancestral Gulf of Elat (Aqaba) also already existed.