High-frequency cyclicity in the latest Messinian Adriatic foreland basin: Insight into palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironments of the Mediterranean Lago-Mare episode

The millimeter-scale couplets are interpreted as varves sedimented in an ephemeral water environment marginal to a perennial brackish water lagoonal basin. These varved sediments reflect a marked seasonality characterized by the alternation of arid and more humid climatic phases. The presence of high values of smectite (60-80%) in the clay minerals of the analyzed samples could be a consequence of these climatic oscillations from drier to moister conditions. The climatic scenario suggested in this paper for the late Messinian Lago-Mare episode is in agreement with the monsoon system that, according to some authors, starting from 5.8 Ma developed in the Mediterranean area.