The declining but non‐rejuvenating base level—The Lisan lake, the Dead Sea area, Israel

Laboratory experiments investigating the effects of a lowering base level do not simulate natural eustatic lowering along concave river profiles. The field data on this issue are also quite limited. In evaluating the control exercised by lowering base level on a drainage network, distinction must be made between its influence and those of other hydromorphological processes operating within the basin. Field data on morphological relations, based on photogrammetric mapping and longitudinal profiling, have been gathered in the Dead Sea area, Israel, where a rapid fall in base level has occurred during the Holocene. The study area is an entrenched fan delta with a sequence of 14 unpaired fan terraces which die out at intersection points within an alluvial fan system. The results suggest that the intersection points did not function as base levels. The receding base level played only a passive role, allowing entrenchment without transmitting a head‐cutting feedback basinwards. The arid environment caused a delay in transmission of information through the system. The results support the model of short, episodic, and discontinuous erosional events, inherent in the evolution of drainage basins. It is suggested that base level effects in temperate and humid regions are not transferrable to arid zones.