Correlation of the Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Formations Across the Dead Sea Rift

We have correlated the highest of the Middle Jurassic units exposed on both sides of the Dead Sea Rift (DSR) in Jordan, Israel, and adjacent Egypt. Because the scarcity of cosmopolitan ammonites renders correlation of these units within the standard biostratigraphic time scale difficult, we compared the brachiopod and molluscan faunas in order to constrain the ages of Jurassic formations in the Levant. The Callovian Mughanniyya Formation in the Zarqa–Arda area of northwest Jordan, east of the DSR, is compared with the Zohar and Matmor formations of the Negev (Israel) and Gebel Minshera (Sinai, Egypt), west of the DSR, as well as with the Arroussiah Formation of Gebel El-Maghara (northern Sinai, Egypt). The Mughanniyya Formation is correlative with the lowermost part of the Zohar Formation in the Negev, which is coeval with the lowermost part of the Arroussiah Formation in Sinai (Egypt).