Search results for "Messinian Salinity Crisi"

Onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis: Sedimentological, petrographic and geochemical characterization of the pre-salt sediments from a new core (Ca…

2022

The present study aims to reconstruct the environmental changes leading to the Messinian Salinity Crisis during the transition from the Tortonian-Messinian marine conditions to the Messinian evaporitic environments. The core 3AGN2S04, recently drilled in the Caltanissetta Basin (Sicily), was analyzed to reveal the petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of the late Tortonian – early Messinian pre-salt sediments. In particular, the facies characterization of the carbonates and organic-rich shales of the Calcare di Base (CdB) member allowed to understand its significance in the paleoenvironmental evolution towards salt deposition and to the reconstruct the brecciation proc…

Carbonate/evaporitic sedimentation during the Messinian salinity crisis in active accretionary wedge basins of the northern Calabria, southern Italy

2020

Abstract This work deals with Messinian deposits belonging to the Neogene infill of the Rossano and Belvedere Basins, respectively developed along the fore-arc and the back-arc areas of the north Calabria accretionary wedge. The main goal is to characterize the carbonate and evaporitic sedimentation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, in the general framework of the basin architecture and the interplay between eustatic vs tectonic controlled sea-level variations. Fieldwork integrated with seismic lines and well logs interpretations led to the revision of the general stratigraphy of the basins and the proposal of a new sequential stratigraphic model driven by cyclic sea-level variations. E…

The Messinian Salinity Crisis deposits in the Balearic Promontory: An undeformed analog of the MSC Sicilian basins??

2021

International audience; The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) is a controversial geological event that influenced the Mediterranean Basin in the late Miocene leaving behind a widespread Salt Giant. Today, more than 90% of the Messinian evaporitic deposits are located offshore, buried below the Plio-Quaternary sediments and have thus been studied mainly by marine seismic reflection imaging. Onshore-offshore records’ comparisons and correlations should be considered a key approach to progress in our understanding of the MSC.This approach has however not been widely explored so far. Indeed, because of the erosion on the Messinian continental shelves and slopes during the MSC, only few places in …

The role of biotic and abiotic processes in the origin of Messinian evaporate-associated carbonates (Southern Italy)

2013

The end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the western Mediterranean: insights from the carbonate platforms of south-eastern Spain.

2010

International audience; How the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) ended is still a matter of intense debate. The Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) is a late Messinian carbonate platform system that recorded western Mediterranean hydrological changes from the final stages of evaporite deposition till the advent of Lago-Mare fresh- to brackish water conditions at the very end of Messinian times. A multidisciplinary study has been carried out in three localities in south-eastern Spain to reconstruct the history of TCC platforms and elucidate their significance in the MSC. Overall, this study provides evidence that the TCC formed following a regional 4th order water level rise and fall concomitant…

The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Mediterranean: an integrated scenario

2004

Early Pliocene continental vertebrate fauna at Puerto de la Cadena (SE Spain) and its bearing on the marine-continental correlation of the Late Neoge…

2017

In this paper, we synthesize sedimentological, magnetostratigraphic and paleontological data from the continental vertebrate site of Puerto de la Cadena (Murcia, SE Spain), in order to clarify its age. The study site is located on the northern edge of the Carrascoy mountain range, in the upper part of the Cigarrón Unit. The end-Messinian discontinuity has been detected at the base of this unit, which indicates it has an early Pliocene age. Abundant remains of small and large vertebrates, including rodents, lagomorphs, primates, carnivorans, perissodactyls, artiodactyls, proboscideans, testudines, squamats, and crocodiles, have been found in this area. Some of these elements are of African o…

Revised timing and evolution of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Mediterranean area

2004

Formation of secondary carbonates and native sulphur in sulphate-rich Messinian strata, Sicily

2010

Abstract Microbially formed authigenic carbonates accompanied by native sulphur are present in the ‘Calcare Solfifero’ below a thick succession of gypsum deposited during the Messinian salinity crisis in Sicily. We sampled these carbonates and associated sulphur in five former sulphur mines to subject them to a detailed petrographic and geochemical study in order to explore their different modes of formation. Native sulphur formed in conjunction with microbial sulphate reduction, which is reflected in its depletion in 34S (δ34S values as low as − 2‰ vs. V-CDT) and an enrichment of 34S in the residual sulphate (δ34S values as high as + 61‰). The oxidation of organic matter by sulphate reduct…

Depositional mechanism of the upper Pliocene-Pleistocene shelf-slope system of the western Malta Plateau (Sicily Channel)

2021

Abstract A high resolution seismic stratigraphic study of the western edge of the Malta Plateau (central Mediterranean Sea) was conducted to reconstruct the depositional mechanisms of the shelf-slope system since the end of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC; 5.3 Ma). The accurate interpretation of a large grid of variable-resolution seismic reflection profiles (multichannel and Sub Bottom) allows us to identify and map a Plio-Quaternary sedimentary sequence overlying the Messinian evaporites. The stratal pattern of this sequence is the result of a clinoform prograding system that constitutes the internal structure of a sedimentary shelf developed in a ramp about 2° slope with bathymetries …