Astronomical tuning for the upper Messinian Spanish Atlantic margin: Disentangling basin evolution, climate cyclicity and MOW

Abstract

We present a new high-resolution cyclostratigraphic age model for the Messinian sediments of the Montemayor-1 core. This core was drilled in the Guadalquivir Basin in southern Spain, which formed part of the marine corridor linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic in the Late Miocene. Tuning of high-resolution geochemical records reveals a strong precessional cyclicity, with maximum clastic supply from river run off coinciding with maximum summer insolation. We recognize a gradual change in the nature of the typical cyclic fluctuations in elemental compositions of the sediments through the core, which is associated with a gradual change in depositional environment as the basin infilled. After applying the new age model, the upper Messinian glacial stages and deglaciation are clearly identified in the oxygen isotope records of the Montemayor-1 core. Reinterpretation of existing planktonic and benthic oxygen isotope records for the core and comparison with equivalent successions in the Rifian Corridor in northern Morocco allow the re-evaluation of the influence of the different water masses in the region: North Atlantic Central Water and Mediterranean Outflow Water. We observe no direct influence of MOW immediately before or during the Messinian Salinity Crisis.