scholarly journals Quantifying the Mediterranean freshwater budget throughout the late Miocene: New implications for sapropel formation and the Messinian Salinity Crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 472 ◽  
pp. 25-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Simon ◽  
Alice Marzocchi ◽  
Rachel Flecker ◽  
Daniel J. Lunt ◽  
Frits J. Hilgen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
Freshwater Budget ◽  
The Mediterranean

Latest Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway restriction: The Atlantic's side of the story

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Lin Ng ◽  
Francisco Javier Hernández-Molina ◽  
Débora Duarte ◽  
Francisco Javier Sierro ◽  
Santiago Ledesma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Seismic Interpretation ◽  
Seismic Facies ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
The West ◽  
Mediterranean Outflow Water ◽  
Sedimentary Evolution ◽  
Mediterranean Outflow ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Sedimentary Unit

<p>The closure of Late Miocene Mediterranean-Atlantic gateways and the restriction of Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) led to the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), the dynamics of which is not well understood. However, restriction of the Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange and the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) is one of the prerequisites to generate hypersaline conditions for evaporitic deposition. During the Late Miocene, MOW circulation was active through a Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange of the Betic, Riffian, and possibly Gibraltar gateways. This connection is thought to have ceased or reduced with the onset of the MSC, before re-establishing through the Gibraltar gateway since the Pliocene to the present. In this study, we define the sedimentary evolution of the Neogene Basins of the Gulf of Cádiz to investigate MOW evolution during the latest Miocene. Seismic interpretation shows an Upper Messinian sedimentary unit of transparent seismic facies. It could also be found in the lower Guadalquivir and Gharb basins, and towards the West Portuguese margin. Biostratigraphic dating indicate an onset of deposition predating the MSC. Distribution of this transparent unit implicates the dominant deposition of hemipelagic/pelagic deposits during a period of quiescence in the Atlantic margins, subsequent to MOW disconnection. This suggests that weakening or cut-off of the intermediate bottom currents of the Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange through the Betic-Gibraltar-Riffian paleo-gateways precedes the onset of MSC evaporites. This work is crucial for the understanding of sedimentary, paleoceanographic and climatic implications of the Latest Miocene Mediterranean isolation in the Atlantic margins.</p>

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

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadl Raad ◽  
Johanna Lofi ◽  
Agnes Maillard ◽  
Antonio Caruso ◽  
Athina Tzevahirtzian
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Seismic Facies ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
Deep Basin ◽  
Stratigraphic Model ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Messinian Evaporites ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

<p>The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) is a prominent and still misunderstood event that influenced the Mediterranean basin in the late Miocene leaving behind a Salt Giant (SG) widespread all over the Mediterranean basin. More than 90% of the Messinian Evaporitic deposits are located offshore with reduced access via boreholes, and thus has been studied mainly by seismic imaging. Onshore-Offshore should be considered a key for a better understanding and answering some of the controversies on the MSC.</p><p>The Balearic Promontory (BP) contains a series of small perched basins presently lying at different water depths, stepped from the present-day coastline down to the deep basin. These topographic lows trapped sedimentary series up to 500m thick, interpreted as MSC in age.<br>The reduced tectonic movements in the BP since the late Miocene (Messinian) till recent days, favored the conservation of the MSC records in this area. Moreover, recent studies revealed the presence of a Salt layer in the Central Mallorca Depression (CMD).</p><p>Considering: 1- the bathymetry of the BP, classified as an intermediate perched basin; 2- the distribution of the MSC records accumulated in a series of sub-basins more or less connected between each other; 3- the geometries of the evaporitic formations, provided by how these records appear on the seismic data; this might recall similarities between the BP records (especially the ones in the CMD) and the MSC reference records outcropping in Sicily (especially in the Caltanissetta Basin).</p><p>We perform seismic interpretation of a wide seismic reflection dataset in the study area with the aim of refining the mapping of the Messinian evaporites covering the study area. Four seismic units were identified in the BP based on their seismic facies and their seismo-stratigraphic position. We try to match up these units to the consensus Messinian 3-stages chrono-stratigraphic model proposed during the CIESM in 2008.<br>We also attempt to find similarities in geometries, facies and distribution of the MSC between the sub-basins of the BP and those described in the Sicilian sub-basins.</p>

Late Miocene Desiccation of the Mediterranean

Nature ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 242 (5395) ◽  
pp. 240-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. HSÜ ◽  
W. B. F. RYAN ◽  
M. B. CITA
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
The Mediterranean

scholarly journals The impact of the Messinian Salinity Crisis on marine biota

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konstantina Agiadi ◽  
Niklas Hohmann ◽  
Giorgio Carnevale ◽  
Elsa Gliozzi ◽  
Constanza Faranda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Planktonic Foraminifera ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Functional Change ◽  
Marine Biota ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
Marine Fauna ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Impact

<p>The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was the greatest paleoenvironmental perturbation the Mediterranean has ever seen. The literature is abundant in hypotheses on the repercussions of the MSC on organisms. However, all these are based on incomplete and still uncertain scenarios about the MSC evolution, as well as on the assumption that such a paleoenvironmental perturbation must have completely reset marine biota. Having prevailed for many decades now, this assumption has leaked from paleontology and geosciences to biological sciences, with numerous studies taking this scenario for granted instead of using it as a starting hypothesis to be tested. Here, we review and revise the marine fossil record across the Mediterranean from the Tortonian until the Zanclean to follow the current rules of nomenclature, correct misidentifications, and control for stratigraphic misplacements. We examine the composition of marine faunas, both taxonomically and considering the function of each group in the marine ecosystem and the transfer of energy through the marine food web. Specifically, we investigate the following functional groups: 1) primary producers, 2) secondary producers, 3) primary consumers, 4) secondary consumers, and 5) top predators. Our study includes sea grasses, phytoplankton, corals, benthic and planktonic foraminifera, bivalves, gastropods, brachiopods, echinoids, bryozoans, fishes, ostracods, and marine mammals. We calculate biodiversity indexes to provide independent evidence quantifying to what degree the marine fauna underwent:</p><ol><li>A drop of overall regional biodiversity of the Mediterranean due to environmental stress during the Messinian.</li> <li>A taxonomic and functional change between the Tortonian, Messinian, and the Zanclean, that is before and after the MSC, as well as during the precursor events to that actual crisis taking place after the Tortonian/Messinian boundary.</li> <li>The onset of the present-day west-to-east decreasing gradient in species richness, which has been related to the sea temperature and productivity gradients and the distance from the Gibraltar connection to the Atlantic.</li> </ol>

scholarly journals The distribution of <i>Triebelina raripila</i> and <i>Carinocythereis carinata</i> (Ostracoda) from the Middle Miocene of the Central Paratethys and their palaeogeographic implications

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Szczechura
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Middle Miocene ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Central Paratethys ◽  
Eastern Paratethys ◽  
Main Species ◽  
Late Middle Miocene ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract. Late Middle Miocene (Upper Badenian) strata of the Fore-Carpathian Depression of Poland yield a shallow-water ostracod fauna which contains the species Triebelina raripila (G. W. Müller, 1894) and Carinocythereis carinata (Roemer, 1838). The palaeobiogeographic distribution of the two main species suggests, that in the late Middle Miocene, Central Paratethys was still connected to the Mediterranean, although still separated from the Eastern Paratethys and from southeastern Eurasia. The continuous occurrence of Triebelina raripila and Carinocythereis carinata in the Mediterranean basins, from the Early Miocene to Recent, indicates that marine conditions existed throughout, thereby allowing them to survive the Late Miocene salinity crisis.

scholarly journals Suidae Transition at the Miocene-Pliocene Boundary: a Reassessment of the Taxonomy and Chronology of Propotamochoerus provincialis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Iannucci ◽  
Marco Cherin ◽  
Leonardo Sorbelli ◽  
Raffaele Sardella
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Faunal Assemblages ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Changes ◽  
Species Diagnosis ◽  
Eurasian Species

Abstract The Miocene-Pliocene (Turolian-Ruscinian) transition represents a fundamental interval in the evolution of Euro-Mediterranean paleocommunities. In fact, the paleoenvironmental changes connected with the end of the Messinian salinity crisis are reflected by a major renewal in mammal faunal assemblages. An important bioevent among terrestrial large mammals is the dispersal of the genus Sus, which replaced all other suid species during the Pliocene. Despite its possible paleoecological and biochronological relevance, correlations based on this bioevent are undermined by the supposed persistence of the late surviving late Miocene Propotamochoerus provincialis. However, a recent revision of the type material of this species revealed an admixture with remains of Sus strozzii, an early Pleistocene (Middle Villafranchian to Epivillafranchian) suid, questioning both the diagnosis and chronological range of P. provincialis. Here we review the late Miocene Suidae sample recovered from the Casino Basin (Tuscany, central Italy), whose taxonomic attribution has been controversial over the nearly 150 years since its discovery. Following a comparison with other Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene Eurasian species, the Casino Suidae are assigned to P. provincialis and the species diagnosis is emended. Moreover, it is recognized that all the late Miocene (Turolian) European Propotamochoerus material belongs to P. provincialis and that there is no compelling evidence of the occurrence of this species beyond the Turolian-Ruscinian transition (MN13-MN14).

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