Synchronous onset of the Messinian evaporite precipitation: First Mediterranean offshore evidence

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was a major ecological crisis affecting shallow and deep-water settings over the entire Mediterranean basin. However, the evolution of the MSC and its ecological impacts have mainly been explained on the basis of sediments from onshore outcrops. Lack of complete and physically connected records from onshore and offshore settings has inhibited comprehensive understanding of basin behaviour during the MSC. Herein we present a continuous record from an intermediate-depth basin on the Balearic Promontory that comprises late Tortonian Messinian marls and evaporitic beds from the first MSC phase (i.e., Primary Lower Gypsum-PLG stage). Well-log and biostratigraphic data allow us establishing a large-scale calibration to the astronomical solutions, and to correlate pre-MSC sediments with classical rhythmic successions outcropping onshore. Thickness and characteristic sedimentary patterns observed in the offshore evaporitic records resemble those from marginal PLC sequences. Furthermore, seismic reflectors from a Bedded Unit (BU), which corresponds to an evaporitiC interval according to well-to-seismic ties, are correlated with the onshore PLC sequences. This correlation constitutes the first attempt to link well-known marginal sequences with intermediate-depth offshore settings, which have previously only been studied through seismic imaging. Our time-calibration provides direct evidence supporting a synchronous onset of the PLG phase between onshore and offshore settings along the southwestern Balearic Promontory margin. Those BU reflectors, which were positively correlated to the PLC, were likely precipitated offshore the continental shelf at Messinian times. These results suggest that gypsum precipitation and/or preservation was not always limited to 200 m water-depths and could occur in non-silled basins. Finally, we only found a major erosion at the top of the PLC sequences, implying that the MSC drawdown occurred after the precipitation of the onshore lower evaporites. Studied sequences provide new insights into the PLC precipitation/preservation settings, as well as into the land-sea correlations of MSC units, and thus could potentially help refine current MSC models. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.