Implications de la présence de mud-mounds microbiens au Messinien (Sicile, Italie)

Abstract

The Messinian deposits from Salemi area display carbonate masses of several metres or tens of metres in size, which are regarded as microbial mud-mounds. The framework is mainly composed of dominantly clotted fabrics. Various encrusting organisms are associated to the microbial micritic framework. Depositional features and associated fauna reflect an open shallower marine environment. The occurrence of microbial mud-mounds during Messinian times in such an environment reassesses the question of disappearance of mud-mounds in the Cainozoic and subsequently that of their perennity until the Present.