Calcareous Microfossils as Tracers of Major Palaeoceanographic Perturbations: The Case of the Onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (Northwestern Italy)

Abstract

Different types of sedimentary rock (primary gypsum and laminated shale) record the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) in the Mediterranean successions; this event occurred synchronously at 5.96 Ma. The disappearance of calcareous microfossils is one of the proxies used so far to identify this timeline. In the Tertiary Piedmont Basin, calcareous microfossils disappear below, at, or above the stratigraphic position of the onset but, when present, they show a very distinctive stratigraphic sequence of bioevents. This allows us to place the onset of the MSC in distal, intermediate, and marginal settings independently of gypsum deposition.KeywordsCalcareous microfossilsTertiary Piedmont BasinMessinian salinity crisisClimate and environmental change