Head of the Geochemistry Lab

Prof. Yishai Weinstein

    CV

    Yishai Weinstein – C.V.

    Married to Annie

    Kids: Eli, Shaked, Michael

     

    EDUCATION

    Year                    Degree                        Institution

    1986                    B.Sc. Geology             The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    1992                    M.Sc. Geochemistry   The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    1998                    Ph.D. Geochemistry   The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

     

    POSITIONS

    Year                                                                                                       Appointment         

    1981-1983         Field Guide in Keshet-Yehonatan Field School, the Golan Heights

    1986-1989         Director of the Golan Field School, Katzrin, the Golan Heights

    1989-1997         Teaching Assistant, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    1990-1997        Graduate Fellow (M.Sc., Ph.D.), Geological Survey of Israel                

    1990 -               Lecturer, Lifschitz Teachers Training Collegue, Jerusalem           

    6-11.1994         Doctoral Fellow Researcher, University of Heidelberg

    4-9.1996           Doctoral Fellow Researcher, University of Göttinngen

    1998-2000        Post-Doc, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

    2000 - 2010       Head of Geography Department, Lifschitz Teachers Training Collegue

    2001 - 2007       Lecturer, Department of Geography, Bar-Ilan University

    2006 – 2007      Visiting Researcher (Sabbatical), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD

    2007 - 2013       Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography & Environment, Bar-Ilan Univ.

    2013 - 2020       Associate Prof., Department of Geography & Environment, Bar-Ilan Univ

    2020 -                Full Prof., Department of Geography & Environment, Bar-Ilan Univ

    AWARDS/GRANT/HONORS

    Year                  Foundation                                                               amount

    2000-2001           US-Israel Binational Science Foundation      USD    69,000

    2003-2007           US-Israel Binational Science Foundation      USD  108,000

    2004-2005           Israel Water Authority                                     NIS   103,454

    2004-2005           Ministry of National Infrastructure                   NIS     40,000

    2005-2006           Ministry of National Infrastructure                   NIS     74,000

    2008-2012           Israel Science Foundation                              NIS   784,000

    2008-2009           Israel Science Foundation (conf. grant)         USD    40,000

    2010-2014           USAID MERC                                                 USD  592,000

    2010-2014           Israel Water Authority                                      NIS  350,000

    2014-2017           Israel Water Authority                                      NIS  420,000

    2014-2017           Israel Science Foundation, Bikura Program    NIS1,086,000

    2014-2018           Israel Science Foundation                               NIS1,100,000

    2014-2017           Israel Water Authority                                      NIS    412,850

    2018-2021           Israel Ministry of Science                                NIS    800,000    

    2019-2020           MERCI                                                            NIS    138,135

    2019-2023          Israel Science Foundation                               NIS 1,278,000    

    2020-2023          Israel Ministry of Science                                NIS    849,275    

    2023-2026         Israel Ministry of Energy                                   NIS   500,000

    RESEARCH STUDENTS

    M.A./M.Sc.

    Yehuda Shalem                                    2006-2009

    Uri Shaanan                                          2005-2008

    Roei Zeevi                                             2006-2010

    Yael Noimeir                                          2009-2013

    Ben Brinberg                                         2010-2013                       

    Mor Feldman                                         2011-2014

    Oren Friedheim                                     2012-2016

    Larisa Odinchev                                    2016-2022

    Tami Lederfein                                      2018-

    Alon Ben-David                                     2020-

    Tatiana Kuzik                                         2020-

    Ph.D

    Yael Kiro                                              2007-2013

    Yehuda Shalem                                   2009-2016

    Adi Tal                                                 2011-2018

    Ronen Alkalay                                    2015-

    Dotan Rotem                                      2015-

    Post Doc

    Xiuguo Wei                                         2009-2010

    Olga Zlatkin                                        2017-2018

    Roey Jail                                             2018-2021

    Manpreet Kaur                                    2020-2022

    Anandkumar Arumugam                     2021-2022

    Specialization fields

    Oceanography, Hydrology, Geology, Volcanology

    Publications

    Weinstein recent Publications (peer-reviewd)

    Wilson, S. J., Moody, A., McKenzie, T. et al., Global subterranean estuaries control groundwater nutrient loading to the ocean, submitted to Nature Communications.

    Jaijel, R., Biton, E., Weinstein, Y., Ozer, T. and Katz, T. 2023, Observations of turbidity currents in a small, slope-confined submarine canyon in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 604, 118008.

    Rotem, D., Lyakhovsky, V., Christiansen, H. H., Harlavan, Y., and Weinstein, Y. 2023, Permafrost saline water and Early to Mid-Holocene permafrost aggradation in Svalbard, The Cryosphere Discussions, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2022-134, resubmitted after revision, 2022.

    Mor, D., Weinstein, Y., Calvo, R. and Weinberger, R. 2022, Volcanic Landscape in the Golan Heights, in: Shtober-Zissu, N. and Frumkin, A. (eds.), Landscape and landforms of Israel, Springer (Accepted).

    Garcia-Orellana, J., Rodellas Vila, V., Tamborski, J., Diego-Feliu, M., van Beek, P., Weinstein, Y., Charette, M., Alorda-Kleinglass, A., Michael, H. A., Stieglitz, T. and Scholten, J. 2021, Radium isotopes as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) tracers: review and recommendations, Earth-Science Reviews, Earth-Science Reviews, 103681.

    Weinstein, Y., Friedheim, O., Odinzov, L., Harlavan, Y., Nuriel, P., Lazar, B. and Burg, A. 2021, Radium isotope dating of saline groundwater and implication to seawater intrusion in shallow and deep aquifers, Journal of Hydrology 598, 126412.

    Weinstein, Y. 2021, Submarine Groundwater Discharge along the Israeli eastern Mediterranean coast and in inland basins, in: Kafri, U. and Yechieli, Y. (eds.), The Many Facets of Israel's Hydrogeology, Springer, pp. 99-114.

    Jaijel, R., Goodman Tchernov, B. N., Biton, E., Weinstein, Y. and Katz, T. 2021, One Pretreatment to Rule Them All: Preparing Marine Sediments for grain size analysis by laser diffraction, Deep Sea Ressearch, Part 1: Oceanographic Research Papers 167, 103429.

    Reznik, I. J., Purtschert, R.,  Sültenfuβ, J., Weinstein, Y., Shalev, E. and Yechieli Y. 2020, Fresh and saline groundwater ages and flow dynamics in a perturbed coastal aquifer, Journal of Hydrology, 597, 125721, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125721

    Weinstein, Y., Nuriel, P., Inbar, M. and Weinberger, R. 2020, Impact of the Dead Sea Transform dynamics on adjacent volcanic activity, Tectonics 39, e2019TC005645. 

    Paldor, A., Katz, O., Aharonov, E., Weinstein, Y., Roditi-Elasar, M., Lazar, A. and Lazar, B. 2020, Deep Submarine Groundwater Discharge—Evidence From Achziv Submarine Canyon at the Exposure of the Judea Group Confined Aquifer, Eastern Mediterranean, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125, e2019JC015435. https://doi.org/ 10.1029/2019JC015435

    Avnaim-Katav, S., Herut, B., Rahav, E., Katz, T., Weinstein, Y., Alkalay, R., Berman-Frank, I., Zlatkin, O. and Almogi-Labin, A. 2020, Sediment trap and deep sea coretop sediments as tracers of recent changes in planktonic foraminifera assemblages in the southeastern ultra-oligotrophic Levantine Basin, Deep-Sea Research Part II 171, 104669.

    Katz, T., Weinstein, Y., Alkalay, R. et al. 2020, The first deep-sea mooring station in the eastern Levantine basin (DeepLev), outline and insights into regional sedimentological processes, Deep-Sea Research Part II 171, 104663.

    Alkalay, R., Zlatkin, O., Katz, T., Herut, B., Halicz, L., Berman-Frank, I. and Weinstein, Y. 2020, Carbon export and drivers in the southeastern Levantine Basin, Deep-Sea Research Part II 171, 104713.

    Stern, N., Alkalay, R., Lazar, A., Katz, T., Weinstein, Y., Berman-Frank, I., Herut, B. 2020, Unexpected massive enmeshments of the Sharpchin barracudina Paralepis coregonoides Risso, 1820 in mesopelagic sediment traps in the Levantine Basin, SE Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Marine Science 21(1), 47-51.

    Tal, A., Weinstein, Y., Baïsset, M., Golan, A. and Yechieli, Y. 2019, High resolution monitoring of seawater intrusion in a multi-aquifer system - implementing of a new downhole geophysical tool, Water 11(9), 1877; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11091877.

    Ratner-Narovlansky, Y., Weinstein, Y. and Yechieli, Y. 2019, Tidal Fluctuations in a multi-unit coastal aquifer, Journal of Hydrology 580, 124222.

    Shalem, Y., Yechieli, Y., Herut, B. and Weinstein, Y. 2019, Aquifer Response to Estuarine Stream Dynamics, Water 11, 1678; doi:10.3390/w11081678. 

    Schlitzer, R., Anderson, R. F., Dodas, E. M. et al. 2018, The GEOTRACES intermediate data product 2017, Chemical Geology 493, 210-223. 

    Weinstein, Y., Rotem, D., Kooi, H., Yechieli, Y., Sültenfuß, J., Kiro, Y., Harlavan, Y., Feldman, M. and Christiansen, H. H. 2019, Permafrost thawing and freezing - direct tracking with radioisotopes, Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 30, 104-112, doi:10.1002/ppp.1999.

    Tal, A., Weinstein, Y., Yechieli, Y. and Borisover , M. 2017, The influence of fish ponds and salinization on groundwater quality in the multi-layer coastal aquifer system in Israel, Journal of Hydrology 551, 768-783.

    Weinstein, Y. and Heimann, A. 2016, Spatial and Temporal Patterns in the Levant late Cenozoic volcanism, in: Enzel, Y. and Bar-Yoseph, O. (eds), Quaternary of the Levant, Chap. 5, Cambridge University Press, pp. 45-51.

    Kiro, Y., Weinstein, Y., Starinsky, A. and Yechieli, Y. 2015, Application of radon and radium isotopes to groundwater flow dynamics: an example from the Dead Sea, Chemical Geology 411, 155-171.

    Regenauer-Lieb, K., Rosenbaum, G., Lyakhovsky, V., Liu, J., Weinberg, R., Segev, A. and Weinstein, Y. 2015, Melt instabilities in a cold lithosphere and implications for intraplate volcanism in the Harrat Ash-Shaam volcanic field (NW Arabia), Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth 120(3), 1543-1558.

    Rodellas, V., Garcia-Orellana1, J., Masqué, P., Feldman, M. and Weinstein, Y. 2015, Submarine Groundwater Discharge: a major source of nutrients to the Mediterranean Sea, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 112(13), 3926-3930.

    Shalem, Y., Weinstein, Y., Levi, E., Herut, B., Goldman, M. and Yechieli, Y. 2014, The extent of aquifer salinization next to an estuarine river, an example from the eastern Mediterranean, Hydrogeology Journal DOI 10.1007/s10040-014-1192-3.

    Weinstein, Y. and Garfunkel, Z. 2014, The Dead Sea transform and the volcanism in northwestern Arabia, in: Garfunkel, Z. and Ben Avraham, Z (eds.), The Dead Sea Transform, Springer, pp. 91-108.

    Kiro, Y., Weinstein, Y., Yechieli, Y. and Starinsky, A. 2014, The role of long-term aquifer seawater circulation in elemental mass balances: a lesson from the Dead Sea, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 394, 146-158.

    Weinstein, Y., Weinberger, R. and Calvert, A. 2013, High resolution 40Ar/39Ar study of Mount Avital, northern Golan: reconstructing the interaction between volcanism and a drainage system and their impact on eruptive styles, Bulletin of Volcanology 75, 712, doi:10.1007/s00445-013-0712-7

    Kiro, Y., Weinstein, Y., Starinsky, A. and Yechieli, Y. 2013, Groundwater ages and reaction rates during seawater circulation in the Dead Sea aquifer, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 122, 17-35, doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2013.08.005

    Shalev, E., Lyakhovsky, V., Weinstein, Y. and Ben-Avraham, Z. 2012, The Thermal Structure of Israel and the Dead Sea Fault, Tectonophysics (accepted).

    Kiro, Y., Yechieli, Y., Voss, C., Starinsky, A. and Weinstein, Y. 2012, Modeling radium distribution in coastal aquifers during sea level changes: the Dead Sea case, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 88, 237-254.

    Weinstein, Y., 2012, Transform faults as lithospheric boundaries, an example from the Dead Sea transform, Journal of Geodynamics 54, 21-28, doi:10.1016/j.jog.2011.09.005.

    Weinstein, Y., Yechieli, Y., Shalem, Y., Burnett, W. C., Swarzenski, P. W. and Herut, B., 2011, What is the role of Fresh Groundwater and Recirculated Seawater in conveying Nutrients to the Coastal Ocean? Environmental Science and Technology 45(12), 5195–5200, DOI: 10.1021/es104394r

    Shaanan, U., Porat, N., Navon, O., Weinberger, R., Calvert, A. and Weinstein, Y., 2011, OSL dating of a Pleistocene maar: Birket Ram, the Golan heights, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 201(1-4), 397-403, doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2010.06.007

    Lazar, B., Weinstein, Y., Paytan, A., Magal, E., Bruce, D. and Kolodny, Y., 2008, Ra and Th adsorption coefficients in lakes – Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) "natural experiment" Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72(14), 3446-3459.

    Solomon, E. A., Kastner, M., Jannasch, J., Robertson, G. and Weinstein, Y. 2008, Dynamic fluid flow and chemical fluxes associated with a seafloor gas hydrate deposit on the northern Gulf of Mexico slope, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 270(1-2), 95-105.

    Weinstein, Y., Burnett, W. C., Swarzenski, P. W, Shalem, Y., Yechieli, Y., and Herut, B. 2007, The role of coastal aquifer heterogeneity in determining fresh groundwater discharge and seawater recycling: an example from the Carmel coast, Israel.  Journal of Geophysical Research 112, C12016, doi:10.1029/2007JC004112.

    Burnett, W. C., Santos, I., Weinstein, Y., Swarzenski, P. W. and Herut, B. 2007, Remaining uncertainties in the use of Rn-222 as a quantitative tracer of submarine groundwater discharge, in: W. Sanford (ed.), A New Focus on Groundwater–Seawater Interactions, IAHS Publ. 312, 109-118, IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK.

    Weinstein, Y., Shalem, Y., Burnett, W. C., Swarzenski, P. W. and Herut, B. 2007, Temporal variability of Submarine Groundwater Discharge: assessments via radon and seep meters, the southern Carmel Coast, Israel, in: W. Sanford (ed.), A New Focus on Groundwater–Seawater Interactions, IAHS Publ. 312, 125-133, IAHS Press, Wallingford, UK.

    Weinstein, Y. 2007, A transition from Strombolian to phreatomagmatic activity induced by a lava flow damming water in a valley, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 159, 167-284.

    Weinstein, Y. and Weinberger, R. 2006, The geology and volcanological history of mount Avital, Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 55, 237-255.

    Swarzenski, P. W., Burnett, W. C., Greenwood, W. J., Herut, B., Peterson, R., Dimova, N., Shalem, Y., Yechieli, Y. and Weinstein, Y. 2006, Combined time-series resistivity and geochemical tracer techniques to examine submarine groundwater discharge at Dor Beach Israel, Geophysical Research Letters 33, L24405, doi:10.1029/2006GL028282.

    Weinstein, Y., Less, G., Kafri, U. and Herut, B. 2006, Submarine Groundwater Discharge in the southeastern Mediterranean (Israel), preliminary results, Radioactivity of the Environment 8, 360-372.

    Weinstein, Y., Navon, O., Altherr, R. and Stein, M. 2006, The role of fluids and of lithospheric heterogeneity in the generation of alkali basaltic suites from northwestern Arabia, Journal of  Petrology 47, 1017-1050.

    Research

    Academic Profile

    The main theme in my research is the interaction between seawater and seafloor or coastal aquifers. This includes the study of water and methane discharge from the ocean floor ('cold seeps') with implications to global warming (e.g. Solomon et al. EPSL, 2008), as well as submarine Groundwater Discharge to the sea (SGD, e.g. Weinstein et al., JGR, 2007), lakes (Kinneret, Dead Sea, e.g. Kiro et al., GCA, 2012, 2013) and coastal estuaries (e.g. Shalem et al., J. Hydrology, submitted).

    During my earlier works, the focus was on submarine hydrology, using instruments I developed in Scripps during my postdoc period (e.g. Kastner et al., 2000; Solomon et al., 2008). Then, the focus of research shifted to the use of natural radio-tracers, which included the establishment of a radioactive isotope lab that focuses on radium and radon research (as well as other related radionuclides, such as thorium and actinium). The advantage of using radium is that while all its four natural isotopes are radioactive, their half life (~decay rate) varies between a few days and 1,600 years, which allows their application to track processes with different time scales. We use these radionuclides to trace processes in the aquifer, fluxes of water and solutes from land to the sea and mixing between coastal water and the open sea. This includes the development of the radium groundwater dating methodology and the determination of seawater circulation time and rates in the aquifer (e.g. Kiro et al. 2013), which we hope will gain recognition as a major groundwater dating method. In 2010, we held in Jerusalem the 3rd Ra-Rn international meeting, where people both exchanged ideas and methodologies and went for a field trip at the Dead Sea to study its unique (very rich) radium and radon composition.

    Another noteworthy research I am involved in is the radium balance of the whole Mediterranean (together with J. Garcia-Orellana from Barcelona), which is conducted in order to assess the general basin-scale flux of groundwater to the sea. An abstract about the preliminary results of this study was recently presented at the CIESM meeting  (Rodellas et al. 2013; Abstr. no 74, above), and a paper to Nature Geoscience is in an advanced stage of writing.

    Tracing and understanding groundwater discharge patterns are important in the determination of the contribution of groundwater discharge to coastal water quality, as well as to the elemental balance of trace elements in the ocean (e.g. Fe, Mn, U, Sr isotopes and others, e.g. Kiro et al., GCA, 2013). In a paper published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (Weinstein et al. 2011), I examined the contribution of the different SGD components to the coastal water quality at Dor Bay (northern Israel), with global implications to SGD sites. As a follow-up to this, I recently started studying two related topics. The first is the associated microbial communities in the sub-terrain (pore water), where SGD occurs, which is studied in collaboration with Prof. I. Berman-Frank from the Faculty of Life Science in BIU (the M.Sc. research of Ben Brinberg). The other is the study of seawater circulation rates in the coastal seafloor. The latter has major implications to the potential interaction of the circulated seawater with the coastal sediments and to the conveyance of solutes and contaminants to the sea. Preliminary results were presented at the last Geochemical Society Goldschmidt Meeting in Florence (August 2013; Abstract no. 72, above).

    The above studies were conducted in collaboration with researchers, both from Israel (Geological Survey, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research and the Hebrew University) and from other countries (US, France, Spain, IAEA, Germany). We also have a large project with Palestinian researchers from the West Bank and Gaza (field work is in Gaza), which focuses on a better understanding of seawater intrusion to aquifers and groundwater discharge to the sea. It is funded by USAID MERC and coordinated by Bar-Ilan University.

    Aside from the low-temperature studies, I am also engaged in 'hot' research, which is about volcanism and magma genesis in the earth's mantle. In the last few years, we published two papers that deal with accurate age determination (the Ar-Ar and OSL methods) of a sequence of volcanic events in Mt. Avital and Birket Ram from the northern Golan (Shaanan et al., JVGR, 2011; Weinstein et al., Bull. Volcanol., 2013). The paper about Mt. Avital describes a unique mechanism, where fluvio-morphological changes at the surface (damming and shifting of a river by a lava flow) caused a major shift in the style of volcanic activity, from the moderately explosive Strombolian eruption to the very aggressive style of phreatomagmatic activity. Other works deal with the tectono-magmatic association, both at mantle depth (magma generation, Regenbauer-Lieb et al., Abstract no. 76, above) and en route to the surface (Weinstein, J. Geodynamics, 2012).

    Last Updated Date : 23/03/2023