A Neogene salt body as the primary source of the salinity in Lake Kinneret

A mineraiogicai study of sporadic samples from the thick salt sequence found within wildcat Zemah-!, revealed the presence of evaporite minerals beyond the level of halite precipitation. The presence of post halite minerals extending up to, and including, bischofite cannot be excluded. The finding of the more soluble K and Mg salts shows evidence of an advanced degree of seawater evaporation that
acted, presumably cyclically, on seawater that intruded during Miocene-Pliocene times into the Rift Valley. The wildcat Zemah-l borehole is located immediateiy south of Lake Kinneret. The region is dissected by regional faults that extend longirudinally across the lake. These faults may act as conduits for groundwater that flushes the salt body at various levels as it rises to the surface. The presence of such an extensive, mineralogically differentiated salt body (similar to other such structures in the Rift) may explain the high Cl, Br and Mg contents and the deficiency of Na in groundwater and spnngs emereing along the eastern shore of the lake and in the nearby Rift extension. The Zemah-l salt body as weil as similar structures in the Rift, may be the sources of the brines discharging along the eastern, southern and southwestem shores of the lake and pcssibiy may be diffusing upwards throu-eh the sediments alon-q the entire lake floor.