Conference:
RCMNS 14th Congres, Istanbul, Turkey, 8-12 September, 2013.
Authors:
Jean-Pierre Suc, Gunay Çifci, Cagil Karakas, Rolando Armijo, Robin Lacassin, Seda Okay, Barin Burcu, Mihaela Carmen Melinte-Dobrinescu, Christian Gorini, Jean-Loup Rubino, Namik M. Çağatay, Gwennaël Jouannic, Speranta-Maria Popescu, Ziyadin Çakir.
Abstract:
The impact of the Messinian Salinity Crisis is now definitely demonstrated in the area of the Dardanelles Strait using unambiguous calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy. The strait is superimposed, for its eastern part, on a Messinian fluvial valley (Melinte-Dobrinescu et al., 2009). Extensive field investigations and analyses of the nannoplankton show that the Messinian Erosional Surface is overlain by Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas. In interfluvial locations, the Messinian Discontinuity is marked by rubefacted clays, overlain by Zanclean marine sediments (Melinte-Dobrinescu et al., 2009). The same approach has been extended throughout around the Marmara Sea and several sites located along its southern shoreline have provided well-preserved evidence of Messinian fluvial erosion followed by the Zanclean marine transgression. Several sets of seismic profiles acquired in different regions of the Marmara Sea with different degree of penetration and resolution suggest that Messinian fluvial erosion has occurred at the base of all the main sub-basins, implying that the bulk of the subsidence and sedimentation processes in the tectonically controlled Sea of Marmara pull-apart basin has started after the Messinian Salinity Crisis.