About

Dr. Ari Meilijson is implementing sedimentological, stratigraphic and geo-biological toolsets into the study of diverse geological systems, spanning the Triassic to Upper Miocene, to try and understand paleoclimates and their influence on the biosphere.

He is specifically interested in the interrelationship between productivity, bottom water environments and organic matter quality, quantity, preservation and source. His work has shown that the biochemical reciprocity of present and deep-time marine systems is found to be extremely complex and dynamic. Moreover, the work on Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic deposits has shown that sustained life, one of the key factors in depositional reconstructions, is found to be very resilient by using remarkable adaptations to cope with, and even thrive in, stressed and extreme environments.

Ari is a field and core-analysis geologist, and his dogma is that a multi-proxy approach is essential in the fields of sedimentology, basin analysis and paleoceanographic reconstructions, particularly when studying abnormal & organic-rich or hypersaline environments.

Ari’s main research intersts are Geobiology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleoclimates, petroleum systems

Ari’s primary project at AMEL involved an integrated study of the pre-evaporite and evaporite intervals of the offshore Messinian Salinity Crisis sedimentary and geophysical data in the Levant basin, based on the Leviathan and Dolphin offshore wells. A multi-proxy analysis of these deposits has resulted with the new accepted model for this event, a better understanding of evaporite systems in general, and new insights into life in hypersaline environments. This project included several topics.

• Deep-basin evidence resolves a 50-year-old debate and demonstrates synchronous onset of Messinian evaporite deposition in a non-desiccated Mediterranean

• Chronology with a pinch of salt: Integrated stratigraphy of Messinian evaporites in the deep Eastern Mediterranean reveals long-lasting halite deposition during Atlantic connectivity

• How to overcome stratigraphic uncertainty in evaporitic systems? A case study from the MSC in the deep Levant Basin.

Other projects related to AMEL:

• Identifying organic-rich intervals sourcing the Pliocene-Quaternary Yafo Petroleum System biogenic gas in the Levant Basin, offshore Israel.

• Database and characterization of potential source rocks for gas formation in the Levant Basin.

• Pressurized sampling of seafloor gas seeps in the Levant Basin

• Geologic processes along the Eocene shelf of northern Israel: sediment source, transport, basin.

• Significance to hydrocarbon exploration of terrestrial organic matter introduced into deep marine systems: Insights from the Lower Cretaceous in the Levant Basin.

• Hydrate Stability and Potential Resource in the Levant Basin, Southeastern Mediterranean Sea.

• Environmental evolution and geological significance of the Miocene carbonates of the Eratosthenes Seamount (ODP Leg 160).

• Internal deformation of the southeast Levant margin through continued activity of buried mass transport deposits.