Search results for "Messinian salinity crisis"

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…

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 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…

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 …

Freshening of the Mediterranean Salt Giant: controversies and certainties around the terminal (Upper Gypsum and Lago-Mare) phases of the Messinian Sa…

2021

The late Miocene evolution of the Mediterranean Basin is characterized by major changes in connectivity, climate and tectonic activity resulting in unprecedented environmental and ecological disruptions. During the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC, 5.97-5.33 Ma) this culminated in most scenarios first in the precipitation of gypsum around the Mediterranean margins (Stage 1, 5.97-5.60 Ma) and subsequently > 2 km of halite on the basin floor, which formed the so-called Mediterranean Salt Giant (Stage 2, 5.60-5.55 Ma). The final MSC Stage 3, however, was characterized by a "low-salinity crisis", when a second calcium-sulfate unit (Upper Gypsum; substage 3.1, 5.55-5.42 Ma) showing (bio)geochemica…

Paleoenvironmental changes during the calcare di base deposition a prelude to the Messinian salinity crisis.

2006

Reply to the comment on “Carbonate deposition and diagenesis in evaporitic environments: The evaporative and sulphur-bearing limestones during the se…

2016

Abstract Manzi et al. (in press) took the opportunity offered by our paper to repeat again all the set of ideas supporting an interpretative model of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), a model they assert to be valid for the whole Mediterranean basin. What emerges from reading this long comment may be summarized in one criticism of our article: we have not systematically applied their interpretative model to our data! The aim of our paper was not to promote their ideas, but to submit the results of more than 20 years of field studies and petrographical and geochemical analyses on Sicilian and Calabrian sequences of the Messinian “Calcare di Base”. It is out of our purpose to enumerate aga…

The Messinian stromatolites of the Sierra del Colmenar (Western Mediterranean): facies characterization and sedimentological interpretation

2018

A representative outcrop of the Messinian stromatolites belonging to the Terminal Carbonate Complex unit, from the northern sector of the Bajo Segura basin (Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo section, Sierra del Colmenar, SE Spain) has been studied. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the architecture, external morphology, and internal morphology in order to reconstruct the environmental and palaeoecological conditions for their growth. The stromatolites macrostructure consists of a continuously doming type morphology (build up and sheets areas).These developed close to the coast and acted as a palaeogeographic barrier, reducing physical stress, channeling the erosive effect of water and …