Deep roots of the Messinian salinity crisis

Svend Duggen (), Kaj Hoernle, Paul van den Bogaard, Lars Rüpke and Jason Phipps Morgan
Additional contact information
Svend Duggen: GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
Kaj Hoernle: GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
Paul van den Bogaard: GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
Lars Rüpke: GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences
Jason Phipps Morgan: GEOMAR Research Center for Marine Geosciences

Nature, 2003, vol. 422, issue 6932, 602-606

Abstract: Abstract The Messinian salinity crisis—the desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea between 5.96 and 5.33 million years (Myr) ago1—was one of the most dramatic events on Earth during the Cenozoic era2. It resulted from the closure of marine gateways between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the causes of which remain enigmatic. Here we use the age and composition of volcanic rocks to reconstruct the geodynamic evolution of the westernmost Mediterranean from the Middle Miocene epoch to the Pleistocene epoch (about 12.1–0.65 Myr ago). Our data show that a marked shift in the geochemistry of mantle-derived volcanic rocks, reflecting a change from subduction-related to intraplate-type volcanism, occurred between 6.3 and 4.8 Myr ago, largely synchronous with the Messinian salinity crisis. Using a thermomechanical model, we show that westward roll back of subducted Tethys oceanic lithosphere and associated asthenospheric upwelling provides a plausible mechanism for producing the shift in magma chemistry and the necessary uplift (∼1 km) along the African and Iberian continental margins to close the Miocene marine gateways, thereby causing the Messinian salinity crisis.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01553 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:422:y:2003:i:6932:d:10.1038_nature01553

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature01553

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().