The late Messinian “Lago-Mare” event and the Zanclean Reflooding in the Mediterranean Sea: New insights from the Cuevas del Almanzora section (Vera Basin, South-Eastern Spain)

The return to normal marine conditions in the Mediterranean Sea after the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), that led to the deposition of thick evaporitic succession followed by settlement of brackish to freshwater conditions of the “Lago-Mare”, is still subject to extensive debate between two opposite scenarios. One scenario implies an abrupt reflooding through the Gibraltar gateway of the Mediterranean Sea previously disconnected from the world ocean and partly desiccated. The second scenario postulates that the Mediterranean Sea kept a high-water level throughout the Messinian Salinity Crisis and was connected continuously to the Atlantic Ocean and to the Paratethys. The stratigraphic record of the classical Cuevas del Almanzora section (Vera Basin) is of a crucial importance as the Vera Basin is located on the eastern margin of the Alboran Sea close to the Gibraltar gateway where Atlantic waters reflooded the Mediterranean Sea after the MSC. The present new study completes previous investigations (Pierre et al., 2006) and is mostly focused on detailed sedimentological observations, analysis of ostracod and foraminifer assemblages and on stable isotopes study of three species of planktonic foraminifers (Globigerina bulloides, Globigerinoides obliquus s.l. and Sphaeroidinellopsis spp.) from the lower Pliocene deposits. Biostratigraphical correlations with the reference deep-sea section from ODP Site 975 (Balearic Basin) and the onshore succession of Eraclea Minoa (Sicily) provide an accurate chronostratigraphy and paleoclimatic reconstruction during the Zanclean. During the late Messinian, the Vera Basin was characterized by very unstable lacustrine to brackish environments with significant water depth variations and the deposits display evidences of subaerial exposure. The ostracod content is dominated by Loxocorniculina djafarovi and Cyprideis gr. agrigentina associated to reworked planktonic foraminifera from older sediments. The Messinian/Zanclean contact is well marked by a clear erosional surface that grades laterally into a megabreccia with reworked gypsum blocks and to the large incision of the Palomares canyon in the offshore domain. The marine reflooding occurred abruptly with a sea level rise by more than 250 m, an important value for a marginal basin. In this western part of the Mediterranean Sea, the marine invasion began with the onset of the lowermost biozone MPl 1 at the base of the Zanclean. The fluctuations of the planktonic foraminifer assemblages and of their stable isotopes allowed to identify five lithological cycles forced by Milankovitch’ precession periodicity, as well as paleoclimatic variations through the lower part of the Zanclean. Thus, these new data allow us to reaffirm that the Messinian/Zanclean boundary corresponds to a major change, characterized by an “instantaneous” restoration of marine conditions at the onset of the Pliocene, related to the abrupt re-flooding of the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean