The Mediterranean Salinity Crisis

Kenneth J. Hsu

That the Mediterranean Sea underwent a salinity crisis during the Miocene (Messinian) is proven by the 1970 JOIDES deep sea drilling expedition. Subsequent work by ocean drilling and by studies on land have recorded the history of this crisis.

Based upon the deep desiccated-basin model, the use of event-stratigraphy, calibrated by strontium-isotope dating and magneto-stratigraphy, has enabled us to decipher the following events between 6.0 and 5.1 Ma: (1) deposition of marine diatom-rich sediments in a partially restricted basin, (2) first desiccation of the Mediterranean when Calcare di base was deposited at a time of isolation from the Atlantic because of a glacial eustatic drop of sea level, (3) influx of marine waters through southern Spanish basins to furnish brines for the deposition of the main salt, (4) Intra-Messinian desiccation, as evidenced by the erosional unconformity above the lower evaporite, (5) Intra-Messinian denudation, when reefs grew on Cyprus and marine sediments were deposited in basins, (6) frequent isolations due to oscillating sea level, when the upper evaporite was deposited, (7) Lago mare, formation of freshwater and brackish lakes due to influx of Paratethys water, (8) opening of the Gibraltar and Pliocene inundation of the Mediterranean.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.