Geology of Lebanon
The intracontinental Palmyride fold belt, with a maximum elevation of 1,385 metres (4,544 ft) above sea level, is an important structural feature that dominates much of Lebanon and Syria, extending northeast towards the Euphrates Graben from the Levant Fracture System.
Gravity modeling suggests 4.5 to 7 kilometres (2.8 to 4.3 mi) of Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments in the sedimentary section of the mountain, with lithologies including limestone, dolomite and sandstone.
In the north, these sediments are blanketed by basalt flows from the late Neogene and Quaternary sedimentary deposits from the Tripoli-Homs Depression, that separate Mount Lebanon from the Syrian Coastal Ranges.
[3] Bekaa is a medium altitude plain, with an average ground elevation of 900 metres (3,000 ft), bounded by Mount Lebanon in the west and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east.
Based on gravity surveys in the late 1990s, it was concluded the Bekaa sedimentary basin to be up to 9 kilometres (30,000 ft) thick, probably tied to the uplift associated with the Levant Fracture System.
Geologists have recognized rock deformation and a stratigraphic unconformity dating to the Hercynian orogeny and spanning the margins of the African and Arabian plates, including Lebanon.
Also in the early Triassic, the Eastern Mediterranean Rift opened between Tunisia and Syria, filling with thick layers of marine silicate sediment and some continental deposits now located in the Palmyra Basin.
Microcontinents from the Cimmerian Superterrane, including Iran, collided with the Eurasian Plate by the late Triassic, while the Neo-Tethys oceanic crust subducated northwards under Eurasia.
During the late Cretaceous and the start of the Cenozoic subsidence occurred in the rifted areas and the Levant Basin was part of the Messinian Salinity Crisis which left up to two kilometers of evaporate in the dried out Mediterranean region.
Deposition has continued since the Cretaceous, with periods of tectonic contraction, including one that is still slowly ongoing, resulting in the erosion of the Palmyride fold belt in Syria.
In those areas (inferred to be nearly the same in Lebanon), the Paleozoic is marked by thick siliclastic deposits, while Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks are typically carbonates or evaporates.
The Arad Group of dolomite, limestone and marl in Lebanon is virtually identical to similar units of the same age in the Syrian Coast Ranges.
Mantle plumes may have been present beneath the Levant in the Late Jurassic, which is posited as an explanation for the alkaline volcanic rocks found in Mount Lebanon.
Some large marine deposits from the Miocene are located to the west of Mount Lebanon, while alluvial conglomerates covered limestones in Bekaa with up 600 meters of material.
Within the last 2.5 million years, ramleh[clarification needed] coastal sands made of carbonate and quartz grains are commonplace, sometimes loosely cemented with calcite.
[13] The Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research have extensively studied the Roum Fault, which is seismically active and extends close to Beirut.
Hematite and limonite are found in Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous units near Mount Lebanon and the associated Marjaba mines yielded tens of thousands of tons of iron oxides between 1953 and 1955.
The Lebanese Parliament approved Law 132 in 2010 to authorize offshore drilling and set up a permanent Data Room at the Ministry of Energy and Water in 2011.
