Editing Mediterranean Sea (section)

====Messinian salinity crisis====

[[File:Etapa3muda.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Messinian salinity crisis before the [[Zanclean flood]]]]
[[File:Crisis salina del Messiniense.ogv|thumb|upright=1.2|Animation: Messinian salinity crisis]]During [[Mesozoic]] and [[Cenozoic]] times, as the northwest corner of Africa converged on Iberia, it lifted the Betic-Rif [[mountain belt]]s across southern Iberia and northwest Africa. There the development of the intramontane Betic and Rif basins created two roughly parallel marine gateways between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Dubbed the [[Betic corridor|Betic]] and [[Rifian corridors]], they gradually closed during the middle and late Miocene: perhaps several times.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de la Vara |first1=Alba |last2=Topper |first2=Robin P.M. |last3=Meijer |first3=Paul Th. |last4=Kouwenhoven |first4=Tanja J. |year=2015 |title=Water exchange through the Betic and Rifian corridors prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis: A model study |journal=Paleoceanography |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=548–557 |doi=10.1002/2014PA002719 |bibcode=2015PalOc..30..548D |hdl=1874/326590 |s2cid=134905445 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> In the late Miocene the closure of the [[Betic Corridor]] triggered the so-called "[[Messinian salinity crisis]]" (MSC), characterised by the deposition of a thick evaporitic sequence – with salt deposits up to 2&nbsp;km thick in the Levantine sea – and by a massive drop in water level in much of the Basin. This event was for long the subject of acute scientific controversy, now much appeased,<ref>Briand, F. (ed.) (2008). The Messinian Salinity Crisis Mega-Deposits to Microbiology – A consensus report. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco. 168 p.[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240612581]</ref> regarding its sequence, geographic range, processes leading to evaporite facies and salt deposits. The start of the MSC was recently estimated astronomically at 5.96 mya, and it persisted for some 630,000 years until about 5.3 mya;<ref>{{cite journal |title=Astrochronology for the Messinian Sorbas basin (SE Spain) and orbital (precessional) forcing for evaporite cyclicity |year=2001 |doi=10.1016/S0037-0738(00)00171-8 |first1=W. |last1=Krijgsman |first2=A.R. |last2=Fortuin |first3=F.J. |last3=Hilgen |first4=F.J. |last4=Sierro |journal=[[Sedimentary Geology (journal)|Sedimentary Geology]] |volume=140 |issue=1 |pages=43–60 |bibcode=2001SedG..140...43K |hdl=1874/1632 |url=https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/1874/1632/1/Krijgsman01.pdf}}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> see Animation: Messinian salinity crisis, at right.

After the initial drawdown{{clarify|date=August 2019}} and re-flooding, there followed more episodes—the total number is debated—of sea drawdowns and re-floodings for the duration of the MSC. It ended when the Atlantic Ocean last re-flooded the basin—creating the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and causing the [[Zanclean flood]]—at the end of the Miocene (5.33 mya). Some research has suggested that a desiccation-flooding-desiccation cycle may have repeated several times, which could explain several events of large amounts of salt deposition.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Gargani J., Rigollet C.|title=Mediterranean Sea level variations during the Messinian Salinity Crisis.|journal=Geophysical Research Letters|date=2007|volume=34|issue=L10405|page=L10405|doi=10.1029/2007GL029885|bibcode=2007GeoRL..3410405G|s2cid=128771539|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author1=Gargani J.|author2=Moretti I.|author3=Letouzey J.|title=Evaporite accumulation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis: The Suez Rift Case.|journal=Geophysical Research Letters|date=2008|volume=35|issue=2|page=L02401|doi=10.1029/2007gl032494|bibcode=2008GeoRL..35.2401G|s2cid=129573384|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00357241/file/2007GL032494.pdf|access-date=19 May 2021|archive-date=7 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507122326/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00357241/file/2007GL032494.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Recent studies, however, show that repeated desiccation and re-flooding is unlikely from a [[geodynamic]] point of view.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Govers |first1=Rob |title=Choking the Mediterranean to dehydration: The Messinian salinity crisis |journal=Geology |date=February 2009 |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=167–170 |doi=10.1130/G25141A.1 |bibcode=2009Geo....37..167G |s2cid=34247931 }}</ref><ref name=GCV>{{cite journal |last1=Garcia-Castellanos |first1=D. |last2=Villaseñor |first2=A. |title=Messinian salinity crisis regulated by competing tectonics and erosion at the Gibraltar arc |journal=Nature |date=15 December 2011 |volume=480 |issue=7377 |pages=359–363 |doi=10.1038/nature10651 |pmid=22170684 |bibcode=2011Natur.480..359G |s2cid=205227033}}</ref>