The Messinian-early Pliocene stratigraphic record in the southern Bajo Segura Basin (Betic Cordillera, Spain): Implications for the Mediterranean salinity crisis

The combination of calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy has confirmed that both the end of the sedimentation of the Messinian I phase, as well as the two lowstand erosional surfaces (intra- and end-Messinian unconformities) and also the onset of the Pliocene phase occurred in the chron C3r (c. 5.9-5.2 Ma). Under the assumption of the classical model of a desiccated deep basin, either of the two aforementioned erosional surfaces, or even both, could be correlative with the evaporites deposited in the abyssal parts of the Mediterranean.