Mantle resistance against Gibraltar slab dragging as a key cause of the Messinian Salinity Crisis

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) was caused by the closure of the Atlantic‐Mediterranean gateways that cut through the Gibraltar orogenic system. The geodynamic drivers underlying gateway closure and re‐opening are still debated. Here, we interrogate the gateway successions to find the imprints of surface deformation, infer the timing and nature of associated geodynamic drivers, and test such inferences against numerical simulations of slab dynamics. We find that since the latest Miocene, a tectonic framework was established in the gateway region dominated simultaneously by (a) relative plate convergence, (b) slab tearing under the eastern Betic Cordillera and (c) mantle resistance against north‐northeastward dragging of the Gibraltar slab by the African plate's absolute motion. We propose that mantle‐resisted slab dragging and slab tearing operated in concert closing the gateways that caused the Messinian Salinity Crisis, whereas sinking of heavy oceanic lithosphere located between buoyant continental plates re‐opened the Strait of Gibraltar at 5.33 Ma.     

Location and probability of shoal margin collapses in a sandy estuary

Channel bank failure, and collapses of shoal margins and beaches due to flow slides, have been recorded in Dutch estuaries for the past 200 years but have hardly been recognized elsewhere. Current predictions lack forecasting capabilities, because they were validated and calibrated for historic data of cross‐sections in specific systems, allowing local hindcast rather than location and probability forecasting. The objectives of this study were to investigate where on shoal margins collapses typically occur and what shoal margin collapse geometries and volumes are, such that we can predict their occurrence. We identified shoal margin collapses, generally completely submerged, from bathymetry data by analyzing digital elevation models of difference of the Western Scheldt for the period 1959–2015. We used the bathymetry data to determine the conditions for occurrence, specifically to obtain slope height and angle, and applied these variables in a shoal margin collapse predictor. We found 299 collapses along 300 km of shoal margin boundaries over 56 years, meaning that more than five collapses occur on average per year. The average shoal margin collapse body is well approximated by a 1/3 ellipsoid shape, covers on average an area of 34 000 m² and has an average volume of 100 000 m³. Shoal margin collapses occur mainly at locations where shoals take up a proportionally larger area than average in the cross‐section of the entire estuary, and occur most frequently where lateral shoal margin displacement is low. A receiver operating characteristic curve shows that the forecasting method predicts the shoal margin collapse location well. We conclude that the locations of the shoal margin collapses are well predicted by the variation in conditions of the relative slope height and angle within the Western Scheldt, and likely locations are at laterally relatively stable shoal margins. This provides hypotheses aiding the recognition of these features in sandy estuaries worldwide. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New age constraints on the western Betic intramontane basins: A late Tortonian closure of the Guadalhorce Corridor?

Several gateways connected the Mediterranean with the Atlantic during the late Miocene but the timing of closure and therefore their role prior to and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) is still under debate. The timing of closure of the Guadalhorce Corridor is especially disputed as the common lack of marine microfossils hampers precise age determination. Here we present new biostratigraphic age constraints on the sediments of the Ronda, Antequera and Arcos regions, which formed the northern part of the Guadalhorce Corridor. The general presence of Globorotalia menardii 4 in the youngest deep‐marine sediments of all three regions indicates a late Tortonian age, older than 7.51 Ma. We conclude that the Guadalhorce Corridor closed during the late Tortonian, well before the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis and that the late Tortonian tectonic uplift of the eastern Betics extended into the western Betics.     

The Ordovician Magnetostratigraphy and Cyclostratigraphy:A Review

正The study of magnetostratigraphy and cyclostratigraphy in the last two decades has provided a great deal of opportunities to improve the geologic time scale.The Cenozoic and Mesozoic geologic timescale have been well calibrated (Gradstein et al..2012;Ogg et al,2012;Cohen et al.,2018).However,for the Paleozoic era the uncertainty over boundary ages are still very large.The reasons include that the geomagnetic polarity     

Changing seas in the Early–Middle Miocene of Central Europe: a Mediterranean approach to Paratethyan stratigraphy

The Miocene palaeogeographic evolution of the Paratethys Sea is still poorly constrained. Here, we use modern Mediterranean biochronology to provide an up‐to‐date overview of changing seas in Central Europe. Instead of a Paratethys that waxed and waned with fluctuating global sea levels, we show that the development of different seas was mainly controlled by tectonic phases. The Early Miocene “Ottnangian Sea” (~18 Ma) was connected to the Mediterranean via the Rhône valley, while the “Karpatian Sea” (~16.5 Ma) was initiated by a tectonically induced marine transgression through the Trans‐Tethyan gateway. In most Central European basins, the establishment of the “Badenian Sea” (<15.2 Ma), triggered by subduction‐related processes in the Pannonian and Carpathian domain, is significantly younger (by ~1 Myr) than usually estimated. The updated palaeogeographic reconstructions provide a better understanding of the concepts of basin dynamics, land–sea distribution and palaeoenvironmental change in the Miocene of Central Europe.     

Age refinement of the Messinian salinity crisis onset in the Mediterranean

We propose a revised age calibration of the Messinian salinity crisis onset in the Mediterranean at 5.971 Ma based on the recognition of an extra gypsum cycle in the transitional interval of the Perales section (Sorbas basin, Spain) and the revision of the magnetostratigraphy of the Monticino section (Vena del Gesso basin, Italy). This age re‐calibration allows to state more accurately that: (i) the interval encompassing the MSC‐onset is continuous, thus ruling out any erosional feature or stratigraphic hiatus related to a major sea‐level fall affecting the Mediterranean; (ii) the first gypsum was deposited during the summer insolation peak at 5.969 Ma associated with an eccentricity minimum and roughly coincident with glacial stage TG32; (iii) the MSC‐onset was preconditioned by the tectonically‐driven reduction of the hydrological exchanges with the Atlantic Ocean and finally triggered by glacial conditions in the northern hemisphere and by arid conditions in northern Africa.     

Tangled up in folds: tectonic significance of superimposed folding at the core of the Central Iberian curve (West Iberia)

The amalgamation of Pangea during the Carboniferous produced a winding mountain belt: the Variscan orogen of West Europe. In the Iberian Peninsula, this tortuous geometry is dominated by two major structures: the Cantabrian Orocline, to the north, and the Central Iberian curve (CIC) to the south. Here, we perform a detailed structural analysis of an area within the core of the CIC. This core was intensively deformed resulting in a corrugated superimposed folding pattern. We have identified three different phases of deformation that can be linked to regional Variscan deformation phases. The main collisional event produced upright to moderately inclined cylindrical folds with an associated axial planar cleavage. These folds were subsequently folded during extensional collapse, in which a second fold system with subhorizontal axes and an intense subhorizontal cleavage formed. Finally, during the formation of the Cantabrian Orocline, a third folding event refolded the two previous fold systems. This later phase formed upright open folds with fold axis trending 100° to 130°, a crenulation cleavage and brittle–ductile transcurrent conjugated shearing. Our results show that the first and last deformation phases are close to coaxial, which does not allow the CIC to be formed as a product of vertical axis rotations, i.e. an orocline. The origin of the curvature in Central Iberia, if a single process, had to be coeval or previous to the first deformation phase.