The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the West-mediterranean Sea - Some Previous Results about the Messinian Events

Abstract

A large seismic dataset has allowed us to regionally study the West Mediterranean Sea with particular focus on the West Sardinia and South Balearic continental margins and adjacent oceanic basins. The main seismic and geological evidences are related to the presence of the Messinian Trilogy in the deep basins and lower slopes, and coeval erosional truncation on the intermediate and upper margins. During the deposition of the upper Messinian sequence (UU), a thin salt layer has been highlighted, thanks to the high resolution of recent profiles. This salt layer, precipitated during the initial re-filling of the Mediterranean Sea, has been correlated to an erosional surface on the lower slope inner the UU and interpreted as the effect of a temporary sea level drop. The underlying salt layer (MU) shows halokinetic deformations in the deep basins which started since the Upper Messinian and developed principally during the Pliocene, sometimes until the Present, as testified by sea bottom piercings. The halokinetics has affected by different intensity, on the base of its original thickness, of the sediments and water load, and of the proximity of the lower slopes, where the sliding of salt toward the deep basin determined compressive stress and enhancing diapirism.