Lake Lisan

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Lake Lisan was a prehistoric lake that existed between 70,000 and 12,000 BP in the Jordan Rift Valley in West Asia. It is sometimes referred to as a Pleistocene lake. Lisan means tongue in Arabic relating to the shape of the Lisan Peninsula where studies of the sediment formations were taken. The sediment formations left by the lake extend from Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) in the north to a boundary ridge ca. 35 km south of the Dead Sea. The lake left behind a layer of lacustrine sediment that blankets the Jordan Valley with terraces of sediment up to 40 m thick. These sediments are commonly called marls and are composed of layers of true loam and calcareous silt loams mixed with other chemicals and salts. At its height, the lake covered several other basins in the area with a maximum area of ca. 2000 km2, a length of 200 km and a width of no more than 17 km. The formations were named the Lisan deposits and first described by Lartet in 1869 after visiting the Dead Sea in the Spring of 1864. He noted a correlation of a wet period in the Levant with a glacial period in Europe. It was not until geographer E. Huntindon visited in 1909 that it was realized it was measure of historical precipitation for the area. The first stratigraphic study of the sediments was carried out by Picard in 1943 who developed a chronology he called the Lisan series. It was not until later studies were carried out at lake level that a more detailed chronology of the lacustrine record was developed. These studies determined the highest stand of the lake to be around 160 metres below sea level at around 24,000 to 26,000 BC. when it formed a complete...