A sediment core was collected from the unsaturated zone of Nizzanim, Israel, from the surface to the water table at 20m. At 3m depth a live root of retama was found and at 10.5m depth a live rootlet was found.
The mineralogy of the sediment core alternated between high quartz (low clay) and low quartz (high clay) due to variation in climate regimes. 14C in the organic fraction of the sediment core was measured to 14m depth. The data divides into two groups: insitu, at the extant surface, and exsitu, at the depth of the roots from the extant insitu data.
The correlation of the insitu data is 0.9897 and the average rate of sedimentation is 0.77mm/yr. The average depth of the roots below the extant surface is 8.6±2.6m.
The dating of the core made possible attributing geologic information to different depths:
1. The little ice age
2. The flooding of the black sea
3. The younger Dryas
The age of the sediment at the depth of 12m is 14Kyear. Thus it seems that there was no unsaturated zone in the site and therefore no Coastal Aquifer. The sea level was at that time 80 below the present level and 15km to the west. Our ancestors followed the coast westward the then returned eastward.
