ABSTRACT
The isolation and desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea during the latest Miocene, an episode known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), represents one of the most dramatic oceanographic events in the Neogene. Collision of the African and European plates induced vertical movements of the southern Spanish and northern Moroccan regions and resulted in a progressive shallowing and closure of the Mediterranean-Atlantic connections, the Betic and Rifian corridors, respectively (e.g. Esteban et al. 1996, Hodell et al. 2001, Kouwenhoven et al. 2003). Prior to and during the main phase of desiccation in the late Messinian (5.96 to 5.33 Ma) evaporites up to 3 km in thickness were deposited in the main Mediterranean basins, followed by brackish sediments of the Lago Mare facies (Hsü et al. 1973, Krijgsman et al. 1999). Re-flooding was most likely initiated by the opening of Gibraltar Strait and Mediterranean-wide normal marine conditions were re-established by the earliest Pliocene (Blanc 2000, Spezzaferri et al. 1998).
