The Messinian Salinity Crisis: a Paratethyan perspective

Abstract

During the late Miocene, the Mediterranean developed into a hypersaline basin wherein ultimately gypsum and halite precipitated. Little is known about the evolution of the Paratethys Sea, which was situated northeast of the Mediterranean. The results described in this thesis provide valuable new insights in the late Miocene evolution of the Paratethys Sea. The migration patterns of dinoflagellate cysts and strontium isotope ratios confirm previous studies that the Pontian Flooding event (re-) connected the major Paratethyan basins at ~6.1 Ma. Furthermore, this thesis provides evidence that the Paratethys Sea did not desiccate during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC; 5.97-5.33 Myr ago). The claim that the deep Black Sea Basin desiccated in response to the MSC is based on incorrect age constraints for a peculiar layer (the so-called “Pebbly Breccia”) in DSDP Hole 380A. During the MSC, dinocyst assemblages in the Paratethys seem unaffected by the events occurring in the adjacent Mediterranean Basin. Indications of continuous presence of fresh and brackish waters in the Paratethys suggest that the Paratethys with its enormous hinterland could have played a major role in MSC.