Messinian deposits and erosion in northern Tunisia: inferences on Strait of Sicily during the Messinian Salinity Crisis |
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| Authors: | Narjess El Euch-El Koundi Serge Ferry Jean-Pierre Suc Georges Clauzon Mihaela Carmen Melinte-Dobrinescu Christian Gorini Anissa Safra Fouad Zargouni |
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| Institution: | Laboratoire de Géologie Structurale et Appliquée, Facultédes Sciences, UniversitéEl Manar, 1060 Tunis, Tunisia;;UMR 5125 PEPS, CNRS, UniversitéLyon 1, Campus de La Doua, Bâtiment Géode, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France;;Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Géosciences de l'Environnement (UMR 6635, CNRS), UniversitéPaul Cézanne, Europôle de l'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 04, France;;National Institute of Marine Geology and Geo-ecology (GEOECOMAR), 23–25 Dimitrie Onciul Street, 024053 Bucharest, Romania;;Laboratoire de Tectonique (UMR 7072 CNRS), UniversitéPierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France |
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| Abstract: | Outcrops, offshore wells, electric logs and seismic profiles from northern Tunisia provide an opportunity to decipher the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Strait of Sicily. Messinian deposits (including gypsum beds) near the Tellian Range reveal two successive subaerial erosional surfaces overlain by breccias and marine Zanclean clays, respectively. In the Gulf of Tunis, Messinian thick evaporites (mostly halite) are strongly eroded by a fluvial canyon infilled with Zanclean clays. The first erosional phase is referred to the intra-Messinian tectonic phase and is analogous to that found in Sicily. The second phase corresponds to the Messinian Erosional Surface that postdates the marginal evaporites, to which the entire Sicilian evaporitic series must refer. The Western and Eastern Mediterranean basins were separated during deposition of the central evaporites. |
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