Messinian events in the Sorbas Basin in southeastern Spain and their implications in the recent history of the Mediterranean

Late Miocene Mediterranean desiccation: topography and significance of the ‘Salinity Crisis’ erosion surface on-land in southeast Spain: Comment

“…This view was dismissed by marginal specialists (Riding et al, 1999, elaborating on ideas presented earlier by Martín and Braga, 1994;Martín et al, 1997;Riding et al, 1998) who claim to have found concrete evidence for a marked sea-level fall at a much lower stratigraphic level in the basinal succession. Their main conclusions are: (1) the erosional unconformity separating the Fringing Reef Unit from the overlying "Terminal Carbonate Complex" in the marginal settings ( Fig.…”

“…Their main conclusions are: (1) the erosional unconformity separating the Fringing Reef Unit from the overlying "Terminal Carbonate Complex" in the marginal settings ( Fig. 1) manifests Messinian drawdown and subsequent desiccation; (2) this unconformity extends to the basin centre where it separates Abad marls from the overlying Yesares gypsum, implying total desiccation of the basin, with locally deep erosion, before onset of the gypsum deposition; (3) the marine Yesares and Sorbas members therefore postdate Mediterranean desiccation, thus implicitly suggesting that these deposits form a local equivalent of the "Upper Evaporites" in Italy (as explicitly suggested by Martín and Braga, 1994) and (4) that the Sorbas Member was deposited under normal marine conditions. In addition, the continental to lacustrine Zorreras Member is referred to be of Pliocene age (Martín and Braga, 1994).…”

“…1) manifests Messinian drawdown and subsequent desiccation; (2) this unconformity extends to the basin centre where it separates Abad marls from the overlying Yesares gypsum, implying total desiccation of the basin, with locally deep erosion, before onset of the gypsum deposition; (3) the marine Yesares and Sorbas members therefore postdate Mediterranean desiccation, thus implicitly suggesting that these deposits form a local equivalent of the "Upper Evaporites" in Italy (as explicitly suggested by Martín and Braga, 1994) and (4) that the Sorbas Member was deposited under normal marine conditions. In addition, the continental to lacustrine Zorreras Member is referred to be of Pliocene age (Martín and Braga, 1994). If true, the Messinian succession of the Sorbas Basin as pictured by Riding et al (1998Riding et al ( , 1999 deviates considerably from the successions encountered elsewhere in the Mediterranean.…”

The Abad composite (SE Spain): a Messinian reference section for the Mediterranean and the APTS

“…The Yesares member is commonly correlated with the Lower Evaporites of the Central Mediterranean (Mu Èller and Hsu È, 1987;Gautier et al, 1994;Clauzon et al, 1996;Krijgsman et al, 1999), although some authors have proposed a correlation with the Upper Evaporites (Martin and Braga, 1994;Riding et al, 1998Riding et al, , 1999.…”

Messinian paleoenvironmental evolution in the lower Guadalquivir Basin (SW Spain) based on benthic foraminifera

“…During this time interval, tectonic processes together with glacioeustatic sea-level oscillations led to the isolation of the Mediterranean triggering the formation of thick evaporite deposits during the socalled Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) (Benson, 1986;Benson et al, 1991;Martín and Braga, 1994;Esteban et al, 1996;Riding et al, 1998;Martín et al, 2010). This event took place at around 6 Ma (Gautier et al, 1994;Krijgsman et al, 1999a) as a consequence of the closure of the different gateways connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in the Betic Cordillera in southern Spain (Esteban et al, 1996;Soria et al, 1999;Martín et al, 2001;Betzler et al, 2006;Aguirre et al, 2007;Martín et al, 2009) and the Rifian counterparts in northern Morocco (Benson et al, 1991;Esteban et al, 1996;Krijgsman et al, 1999b;Barbieri and Ori, 2000).…”