Sedimentological and paleoenvironmental scenario before, during, and after the Messinian Salinity Crisis: The San Miguel de Salinas composite section (western Mediterranean)

A composite stratigraphic section ranging from the Messinian to the Pliocene, recording the most important phases of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, is represented in the San Miguel de Salinas area (Bajo Segura basin, SE Spain). Detailed magnetostratigraphic and facies analyses and foraminifer and nannoplankton assemblage studies were carried out. Integration of the results has allowed the characterization of the pre-evaporitic (synthem Messinian I), syn-evaporitic (synthem Messinian II), and post-evaporitic phases (synthem Pliocene) from a paleoenvironmental and chronostratigraphic standpoint. The pre-evaporitic phase is late Messinian and records a shallowing-upward trend. The syn-evaporitic phase took place in chron C3r and is characterized by laminated marls with intercalated selenitic gypsum beds and sandstones. Variations in foraminifer and nannoplankton assemblages together with episodic gypsum precipitation record major changes in water salinity in a stressed marine environment. The pre- and syn-evaporitic phases are separated by the intra-Messinian unconformity, represented by an erosional surface related with a sea-level fall. After the evaporitic phase, a sea-level fall generates the end-Messinian unconformity, whose strongly erosional nature is evidenced by the deeply carved paleovalley of San Miguel de Salinas. The post-evaporitic phase begins in the earliest Pliocene and records the re-establishment of normal marine conditions in the basin. Since the San Miguel de Salinas composite section can be considered as a benchmark for the study of the evolution of marginal Mediterranean basins during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, the detailed characterization of these different phases is of great importance in understanding this event.