Precessional control of Sr ratios in marginal basins during the Messinian Salinity Crisis?

Abstract

Sr variations are expected to be a common feature in PLG deposits in marginal basins of the Mediterranean.

The precessional phase lag of Messinian gypsum deposition in Mediterranean marginal basins

“…Box models have recently been used to represent the Late Miocene Mediterranean in a number of studies which quantitatively examined various hypotheses regarding the Messinian Salinity Crisis (Meijer, 2006;Topper et al, 2011;Topper and Meijer, 2013;Topper et al, 2014). The model used in this study closely resembles that of Topper et al (2014) in their default setup.…”

“…The model used in this study closely resembles that of Topper et al (2014) in their default setup. The Mediterranean is represented by two boxes: one box represents the deep basins of both the western and eastern Mediterranean, valid under the assumption that interbasinal exchange was large enough to keep water characteristics in both basins equal (see Topper and Meijer, 2013), and the other represents a generic marginal basin (Fig.…”

“…An extensive analysis of the sensitivity of model results to marginal basin volume, surface area and river input has been conducted in Topper et al (2014). The influence of these parameters is minor compared to the influence of gateway sizes and fresh water budget.…”

“…The influence of these parameters is minor compared to the influence of gateway sizes and fresh water budget. Hence, we adopt the default values for these parameters from Topper et al (2014): the marginal basin has a surface area of 0.05% and a volume of 0.01% of the total Mediterranean surface area and volume, i.e. r 1200 km 2 and 375 km 3 (depth of 300 m), and gets 0.1% of the total Mediterranean river input.…”

“…Since the aim is to assess the likelihood and magnitude of a phase lag in the PLG evaporites, part of the model results can be discarded because they do not match with observational constraints on the PLG (see also Topper et al, 2014). Evidence of continental water fluxes temporarily lowering salinities to marine or brackish has been found in several marginal basins (Lugli et al, 2010, and references therein).…”