The Late Messinian salinity crisis and Late Miocene tectonism: Interaction and consequences on the physiography and post-rift evolution of the Gulf of Lions margin

The interpretation of Rhône maritime seismic profiles and the accurate mapping of all the structural features affecting the Miocene cover made it possible for us to develop herein a new structural model for the top of the eroded Miocene of the Gulf of Lions platform. Late Miocene extensional faults exerted a considerable structural control on the Messinian erosion. In particular, mapping of transfer zones has shown that these structures controlled retrogressive erosion of the platform. This late Miocene extension could have been caused by gravity-driven destabilization of the platform, associated with base-level lowering at the onset of the Messinian salinity crisis.