The deep record of the Messinian salinity crisis: Evidence of a non-desiccated Mediterranean Sea

This research is focused on a complete reexamination of the evaporite facies present in all the cores that cut
through the topmost deposits of the Messinian salinity crisis lying below the floor of the Mediterranean Sea
(DSDP Legs 13 and 42A, ODP Legs 107 and 161). This review suggests that the uppermost evaporite units in
both western and eastern deep Mediterranean basins consist mainly of clastic (gypsrudite, gypsarenite and
gypsiltite) and fully subaqueous deposits (laminar gypsum, selenite and cumulate halite) that are partially
affected by burial anhydritization and tectonic induced recrystallization. No unequivocal evidence of shallow
water or even supratidal (sabkha) deposition is in evidence, suggesting that at the very last phase of the salinity
crisis the Mediterranean Sea did not experience desiccation, but that deposition took place under permanent
subaqueous conditions.