The Sorbas basin of SE Spain contains one of the most complete sedimentary successions of the Mediterranean re¯ecting the increasing salinity during the Messinian salinity crisis. A detailed cyclostratigraphic study of these successions allows a correlation of the sedimentary cycle patterns to astronomical target curves. Here, we present an astrochronological framework for the Messinian of the central part of the Sorbas basin. This framework will form a solid basis for high-resolution correlations to the marginal carbonate facies and to the Central Mediterranean area.The early Messinian Abad Member contains 55 precession induced sedimentary cycles marked by homogeneous marl±opal-rich bed alternations in the`Lower Abad' and by homogeneous marl±sapropel alternations in the`Upper Abad'. Astronomical tuning results in an age of 5.96 Ma for the transition to the Yesares evaporites and thus for the onset of the`Messinian salinity crisis'. The marl±sapropel cycles of the`Upper Abad' are replaced by gypsum±sapropel cycles (14) in the Yesares Member, indicating that the evaporite cyclicity is related to precession controlled oscillations in (circum) Mediterranean climate as well. As a consequence, gypsum beds correspond to precession maxima (insolation minima) and relatively dry climate, sapropelitic marls to precession minima (insolation maxima) and relatively wet climate. An alternative (glacio-eustatic) obliquity control for evaporite cyclicity can be excluded because the number of sedimentary cycles with a reversed polarity is too high.Sedimentation during the Abad, Yesares, and the overlying coastal sequences of the Sorbas Member, took place in a continuously marine environment, indicating that marine conditions in the Sorbas basin prevailed at least until 5.60±5.54 Ma. According to our scenario, deposition of the Yesares and Sorbas Member took place synchronously with deposition of the`Lower Evaporites' in the Central Mediterranean. Finally, the continental Zorreras Member consists of 8 sedimentary cycles of alternating reddish silts (dry climate) and yellowish sands (wet climate) which correlates very well with the`Upper Evaporites' and Lago Mare facies of the Mediterranean. q

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We present a new lithostratigraphy and chronology for the Miocene on central Crete, in the Aegean forearc. Continuous sedimentation started at $10.8 Ma in the E^W trending £uvio-lacustrine Viannos Basin, formed on the hangingwall of the Cretan detachment, which separates high-pressure (HP) metamorphic rocks from very low-grade rocks in its hangingwall. Olistostromes including olistoliths deposited shortly before the Viannos Basin submerged into the marine Skinias Basin between 10.4 and 10.3 Ma testi¢es to signi¢cant nearby uplift. Uplift of the Skinias Basin between 9.7 and 9.6 Ma, followed by fragmentation along N^S and E^W striking normal faults, marks the onset of E^Warc-parallel stretching superimposed on N^S regional Aegean extension.This process continued between 9.6 and 7.36 Ma, as manifested by tilting and subsidence of fault blocks with subsidence events centred at 9.6, 8.8, and 8.2 Ma.Wholesale subsidence of Crete occurred from 7.36 Ma until $5 Ma, followed by Pliocene uplift and emergence. Subsidence of the Viannos Basin from 10.8 to 10.4 Ma was governed by motion along the Cretan detachment. Regional uplift at $10.4 Ma, followed by the ¢rst reworking of HP rocks (10.4^10.3 Ma) is related to the opening and subsequent isostatic uplift of extensional windows exposing HP rocks. Activity of the Cretan detachment ceased sometime between formation of extensional windows around 10.4 Ma, and high-angle normal faulting cross-cutting the detachment at 9.6 Ma.The bulk of exhumation of the Cretan HP-LT metamorphic rocks occurred between 24 and 12 Ma, before basin subsidence, and was associated with extreme thinning of the hangingwall (by factor $10), in line with earlier inferences that the Cretan detachment can only explain a minor part of total exhumation. Previously proposed models of buyoant rise of the Cretan HP rocks along the subducting African slab provide an explanation for extension without basin subsidence.