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-inthewest,asequenceofCenomanian-EarlyConiacianplatformrocks
oftheJudeaGroup,and
-intheeast,theLowerCretaceousKurnubGroupcoveredwithUpper
CretaceouscarbonaterocksoftheAjlunGroup,largelyisochronouswiththe
JudeaGroup(cf.Fig.2,Table2).
IntheEarlyCretaceous,thenorthernregionsofSinai,IsraelandJordan
werethenorth-eastpassivecontinentalmarginoftheAfrican-ArabianPlate.
Then,thispartofthecontinentwasintropical-subtropicalclimates.Itwas
surroundedbythewatersoftheTethysocean,whoseshelfedge,withanac-
centuatedseawardslope,wassituatedafewkilometreseastofthepresent
eastMediterraneancoastline(Buchbinderetal.2000:816;Schulzeetal.2003;
Bachmann,Hirsch2006).Fromthelandareainthesouthandsouth-east,the
basinwasbeingfilledbyvariousfluvialdeposits.TheKurnubGroupsedi-
ments(cf.Table2)taketheformofalternatinglayersofterrestrialsandstone,
mixedcarbonate-siliciclasticsediments,andtidalmarsh-coastalswamp
blackshales.Thearrangementofthoserocklayersreflectsvariationsinthe
leveloftheTethysatthattime(Amireh,Abed1999).
IntheLateAptian,sedimentationofcarbonatedepositsdevelopedon
thesubsidingshelves.Limestone,dolomiteandmarlychalksweredepos-
ited,representingfaciesofbioherms,backreeflagoonsandhyper-saline
shallowwaterbasins(Begin1975;Flexeretal.1986,1989;Mor1987;Braun,
Hirsch1994;Baueretal.2003;Schulzeetal.2003,2004).Thoserocksform
theLateAlbian-ConiacianrocksequenceoftheJudea/AjlunGroup.Nearer
theland,towardsthesouth,anincreasedinputofnearshoresiliciclasticswas
stillinprogress(Schulzeetal.2003:642).
Sea-levelperturbationsarereflectedinthedepositionofCenomanian
marlsandclaysoftheMozaFormationintheJudeanHills(Braun,Hirsch
1994),clayeyCenomanianstrataoftheFuheisFormationandmarlsofthe
Cenomanian-earlyTuronianShueibFormationinwest-centralJordan
(Schulze2003;Perrilliatetal.2006),aswellasargillaceouspaleosolsandkar-
sticvoidsatthetopoftheShivtaFormation12,coveredagainbyclayandsand
makingupthebaseoftheNezerFormation(Mor1987;Sandler1996;
Buchbinderetal.2000:814).Inmostofthisargillaceoussediment,illiteisthe
dominantclaymineral,whilekaoliniteisamajorcomponentonlyintheMoza
Formation(Taitel-Goldmanetal.1995)andtheKurnubGroup(Khoury2002).
FollowingtheopeningoftheSouthAtlanticRidgeandtheconvergence
ofAfro-ArabiaandEurasia,theareawasaffectedbycompressivetecton-
ics.Thiscompressionmoderatelyfoldedthedepositedsediments,creating
anticlinalridgesandsynclinalbasinsoftheSyrianArcfoldsystem(Flexeret
al.1986;Rosenthaletal.2000;Baueretal.2003).Duetothiscompressional
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12ItistherocksoftheShivtaFormationthatformthekarstifiedcliffinthecavesinwhich
theQumranmanuscriptswerehidden.
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