The cave of the letters sediments - Indication of an early phase of the Dead Sea depression?

The highest aquatic sediments along the shoulders of the Dead Sea depressio n have been found in the Cave of the Letters, Nahal Hever, Israel. The cave has acted as a sediment trap, preserving autogenic dolomite and detritic d eposits. The dolomitic sediment may correlate with late Miocene dolomites w ithin the rift valley. The morphostratigraphic setting of the sediment impl ies deposition within an early topographic low that existed in the Dead Sea region since similar to 10 to 7 Ma.