Messinian Salinity Crisis deposits widespread over the Balearic Promontory: Insights from new high-resolution seismic data

Abstract

The current interpretation of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) involves the deposition of peripheral or marginal evaporites in onshore basins as well as the erosion of the margin and the deposition of thick evaporites in deep basins. The so-called intermediate basins are formed in domains between the onland outcrops and the deep basins. The Balearic Promontory is a bathymetric high located between the deep Algerian and Liguro-Provençal basins and the onland Spanish basin. The SIMBAD project aims to investigate the spatial variability of the MSC-related deposits and to assess the extent of post-MSC reactivation over the Balearic Promontory. We present here the first results of the SIMBAD high-resolution seismic survey (January 2013) which imaged for the first time a thin MSC-related unit widely distributed in small sub-basins over the Balearic Promontory.Borehole analyses have shown that this unit could be correlated with primary gypsum formations linked to the peripheral evaporites. Locally, in the Central Depression between Mallorca and Ibiza islands, a thicker MSC unit is observed whose lowermost transparent part could correspond to a salt layer. Geometrical relationships suggest that the MSC in the Central Depression could postdate the primary gypsum. The occurrence of a halite layer in the Central Depression, at depths of 1000 to 1500 m, favours the hypothesis that the evaporites precipitated passively in closed or partially closed perched sub-basins, possibly as a result of evaporative drawdown at different depths and possibly diachronously, at least with respect to the deep-basin evaporites.