Plio-Quaternary Sedimentation and Tectonics in the Ionian Area: Clues to the Recent Evolution of the Mediterranean

Study of a Neogene basin dynamics: The “Bizerte basin”, northeastern Tunisia: relevance to the global Messinian Salinity Crisis

“…Two main points seem to have drawn the attention of authors about the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) in the Mediterranean palaeobasin during the Neogene (Babault et al, 2005(Babault et al, , 2006Braga et al, 2006;Butler et al, 1995;El Euch-El Koundi et al, 2009;Fabricius and Hieke, 1977;Garcı ´a et al, 2011;Hsu ¨et al, 1973;Krijgsman et al, 1999;Mansouri et al, 2008;Riding et al, 1999;Rouchy, 1980;Rouchy and Caruso, 2006). The first one deals with the processes (tectonic and/or eustatic) that have governed the initiation of the Messinian Salinity Crisis and the second point is relevant to the depositional environment of both peripheral and deep central sediments, as deep shallow water basins (Andre ´et al, 2004;Anto ´n et al, 2008;Azdimousa et al, 2006;Bache et al, 2009Bache et al, , 2012Braga et al, 2006;Butler et al, 1995;Clauzon et al, 1996;Cosentino et al, 2006;El Euch-El Koundi et al, 2009;Gillet et al, 2007;Griffin, 2002;Hsu ¨et al, 1973;Krijgsman et al, 1999;Mansouri et al, 2008;Rouchy, 1980Rouchy, , 1999Rouchy and Caruso, 2006;Roveri and Manzi, 2006;Roveri et al, 2008;Suc et al, 2011).…”

Giant polygons in the Realmonte Mine (Agrigento, Sicily); evidence for the desiccation of a Messinian halite basin

“…This same debate has been the case also for the Messinian evaporites of the Mediterranean after the discovery of deposits 1-2 km thick beneath the sea floor (Busson 1990;Cita and Corselli 1993). Originally, three main models have been proposed to explain the origin of the Messinian evaporites in the Mediterranean: (1) a shallow, rapidly subsiding basin able to create accommodation space for shallow-water to supratidal evaporite accumulation (Nesteroff 1973;Sonnenfeld 1974Sonnenfeld , 1985Fabricius and Hieke 1977;Fabricius et al 1985;Wezel 1985); (2) a preexisting deep basin that became partially cut off from world sealevel, resulting in drawdown and deposition of shallow-water to desiccated hypersaline facies (Hsü 1973;Ryan and Cita 1978;Hsü et al 1978); and (3) a preexisting deep basin in which deposition occurred in deep hypersaline water (hypothesis mostly based on the general models proposed by Sloss 1969 andSchmalz 1969;Busson 1980). Other hypotheses integrating different environments of deposition to explain the complex array of evaporite facies through the Mediterranean Basin have been proposed (Richter-Bernburg 1973;Rouchy 1982;Rouchy and Saint Martin 1992;Butler et al 1995;Clauzon et al 1996).…”