|
|||||
|
|
A two‐step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis |
|
| Authors: | François Bache Speranta‐Maria Popescu Marina Rabineau Christian Gorini Jean‐Pierre Suc Georges Clauzon Jean‐Louis Olivet Jean‐Loup Rubino Mihaela Carmen Melinte‐Dobrinescu Ferran Estrada Laurent Londeix Rolando Armijo Bertrand Meyer Laurent Jolivet Gwénaël Jouannic Estelle Leroux Daniel Aslanian Antonio Tadeu Dos Reis Ludovic Mocochain Nikola Dumurd?anov Ivan Zagorchev Vesna Lesi? Dragana Tomi? M Nam?k Ça?atay Jean‐Pierre Brun Dimitrios Sokoutis Istvan Csato Gülsen Ucarkus Ziyadin Çak?r |
| Institution: | 1. UPMC Univ, , F‐75005 Paris, France;2. CNRS, , F‐75005 Paris, France;3. GNS Science, , New Zealand;4. Laboratoire de Tectonique, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (UMR 7154 CNRS), , Paris Cedex, France;5. IUEM, Domaines océaniques (UMR 6538), , 29280 Plouzané, France;6. C.E.R.E.G.E. (UMR 6635), Université Paul Cézanne, Europ?le de l'Arbois, , 13545 Aix‐en‐Provence Cedex 04, France;7. IFREMER, Géosciences marines, LGG, , 29280 Plouzané Cedex, France;8. TOTAL, TG/ISS, CSTJF, , 64018 Pau Cedex, France;9. National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology, , 70318 Bucharest, Romania;10. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar de Barcelona, C.S.I.C., Paseo Juan de Borbon s/n, , 08039 Barcelona, Spain;11. Université Bordeaux 1, UMR 5805 CNRS ‘EPOC’, , 33405 Talence cedex, France;12. ISTO (UMR 6113), Université d'Orléans, , 45071 Orléans Cedex 2, France;13. Université Paris‐Sud, Laboratoire IDES, UMR 8148, , Orsay, F‐91405 France;14. Departamento de Oceanografia Geologica/UERJ‐Brazil, Rua S?o Francisco Xavier, , 20.550‐900 Brazil;15. Laboratoire de Géologie (UMR 8538), Ecole Normale Supérieure, , 75231 Paris, Cedex 05, France;16. ISES, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, , 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands;17. Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, , 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria;18. Geolomagnetic Institute, , 11000 Belgrad, Republic of Serbia;19. Istanbul Technical University, School of Mines and Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, , Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey;20. Géosciences Rennes (UMR 6118), Université Rennes 1, , 35042 Rennes Cedex, France;21. Department of Geology, Collin College, , Plano, TX, 75075 USA |
| Abstract: | The Messinian Salinity Crisis is well known to have resulted from a significant drop of the Mediterranean sea level. Considering both onshore and offshore observations, the subsequent reflooding is generally thought to have been very sudden. We present here offshore seismic evidence from the Gulf of Lions and re‐visited onshore data from Italy and Turkey that lead to a new concept of a two‐step reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The refilling was first moderate and relatively slow accompanied by transgressive ravinement, and later on very rapid, preserving the subaerial Messinian Erosional Surface. The amplitude of these two successive rises of sea level has been estimated at ≤500 m for the first rise and 600–900 m for the second rise. Evaporites from the central Mediterranean basins appear to have been deposited principally at the beginning of the first step of reflooding. After the second step, which preceeded the Zanclean Global Stratotype Section and Point, successive connections with the Paratethyan Dacic Basin, then the Adriatic foredeep, and finally the Euxinian Basin occurred, as a consequence of the continued global rise in sea level. A complex morphology with sills and sub‐basins led to diachronous events such as the so‐called ‘Lago Mare’.This study helps to distinguish events that were synchronous over the entire Mediterranean realm, such as the two‐step reflooding, from those that were more local and diachronous. In addition, the shoreline that marks the transition between these two steps of reflooding in the Provence Basin provides a remarkable palaeogeographical marker for subsidence studies. |
| Keywords: | |