A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis

François Bache (1, 2) , Speranta-Maria Popescu (3) , Marina Rabineau (4) , Christian Gorini (1) , Jean-Pierre Suc (1) , Georges Clauzon (5) , Jean-Louis Olivet (6) , Jean-Loup Rubino (7) , Mihaela Carmen Melinte-Dobrinescu (8) , Ferran Estrada (9) , Laurent Londeix (10) , Rolando Armijo (3) , Bertrand Meyer (1) , Laurent Jolivet (11) , Gwenael Jouannic (7) , Estelle Leroux (4, 6) , Daniel Aslanian (6) , Antonio Tadeau dos Reis (12) , Ludovic Mocochain (13) , Nikola Dumurdžanov (14) , Ivan Zagorchev (15) , Vesna Lesić (16) , Dragana Tomić (16) , Namik Cagatay (17) , Dimitri Sokoutis (18) , Istvan Csato (19) , Gulsen Uçarkus (20) , Ziyadin Çakir (20) , Jean-Pierre Brun (21)

1 iSTeP - Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris
2 GNS Science [Lower Hutt]
3 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
4 LDO - Domaines Océaniques
5 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
6 GM - Géosciences Marines
7 IDES - Interactions et dynamique des environnements de surface
8 National Institite of Marine Geology & Geoecology
9 ICM - Instituto de Ciencias del Mar de Barcelona
10 EPOC - Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques
11 ISTO - Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans
12 Departamento de Oceanografia Geologica
13 LGENS - Laboratoire de géologie de l'ENS
14 UKIM - Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje
15 Geological Institute of BAS
16 Geolomagnetic Institute
17 GEOLOGY AND MINING DEPARTMENT - ITU
18 ISES
19 Department of Geology
20 Maden Fakültesi = Faculty of mines [Istanbul]
21 Sytèmes Tectoniques

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.

Domains: Tectonics; Global Changes

François Bache, Speranta-Maria Popescu, Marina Rabineau, Christian Gorini, Jean-Pierre Suc, et al.. A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Basin Research, 2012, 24, pp.125-153. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2117.2011.00521.x⟩. ⟨insu-00616947⟩