Publication Date:
2011-03-01
Description:
Between 7 and 4 Ma, Alpine deformations were particularly marked in the Mediterranean area and the geography of this region (including the residual central and eastern Paratethys) was affected by tremendous changes related to the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC). The crisis is now widely regarded as the product of tectonic disruptions, but there is no agreement yet on the modalities of the event. The exceptional eustatic changes experienced by the Mediterranean and the Black seas occurred in a very brief time-window (5.60 – 5.33 Ma) and were characterized by a ~1500 m sea-level drop that led to their almost complete desiccation, followed by a Zanclean sudden reflooding. These events necessarily had tectonic repercussions. An intra-Messinian tectonic episode is commonly referred but its chronologic and spatial variability are yet to be recognized. In particular, eustatic changes associated with the MSC have probably driven the episodic relationships that occurred between the Paratethys and the Mediterranean, while localisation of the corridor(s) followed by the marine or brackish organisms was closely contingent upon the tectonic context. Although the MSC has been the focus of numerous international meetings and scientific publications, the temporal, spatial and causal relationships between eustasy and tectonics, however, have yet to be comprehensively investigated. Such relationships can now be investigated because of the recent major advancements that have improved understanding of intrinsic chronology of the crisis and its paleogeographic context. These relationships have been analyzed in a Special Session of Geological Society of France (SGF), which was dedicated to Georges Clauzon (Fontannes Prizewinner 2007 of the Society), whose seminal research has greatly...
Print ISSN:
0037-9409
Electronic ISSN:
0037-9409
Topics:
Geosciences
Permalink