Upper Cretaceous high-resolution multiple stratigraphy, northern margin of the Arabian platform, central Israel

Nineteen columnar sections of pelagic sediments, from outcrops and boreholes across central Israel, deposited at relatively moderate rates on the outer shelf and the continental slope of the Arabian margin, were correlated using lithological and electric-log markers, calcareous nannofossils, planktic and benthic foraminifera, ostracods and ammonites. Thirty-seven local correlatable datum levels, from Upper Coniacian to the end of the Cretaceous, were recognized, of which 30 are based on diagnostic fossils of Tethyan significance. These datum levels include first (FA) and/or last (LA) appearances of 13 nannofossils, 14 planktic and 9 benthic foraminifera, 5 ostracod zones and 4 ammonites, as well as 10 lithological markers of chalks, marls, cherts, phosphorites and dark bituminous shales. The biostratigraphic planes do not cross lithological boundaries and therefore both are considered synchronous events. The datum levels are used for a biostratigraphic zonation, a lithostratigraphic subdivision and a chronostratigraphic interpretation. The multi-disciplinary correlations provide a powerful high-resolution stratigraphic tool for further quantitative basin analysis and for the study of global events.