Abstract
The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC; 5.97– 5.33 Ma) is one of the most controversial geological events that influenced the evolution of the Mediterranean Basin in the late Miocene, leaving behind an immense volume of evaporites known as the Mediterranean Salt Giant (MSG). Today, more than 90% of the MSG evaporitic deposits are located offshore, buried below thick sediments that are Pliocene to Quaternary in age, and have thus been studied mainly by marine seismic reflection imaging. The Balearic Promontory (BP), a prominent topographic high in the Western Mediterranean basin, contains a unique and tectonically poorly deformed MSC record that resembles the evaporitic record of other peri-Mediterranean marginal and intermediate basins.This PhD thesis was performed in the framework of the SaltGiant European Training Network (ETN), a cross-disciplinary project whose objective is to understand the formation of the MSG. The work of the thesis is focused on the MSC deposits of the BP. Multi-disciplinary approach was applied to answer some of the still open questions concerning the MSC event. As a first step, seismic interpretation of a wide seismic reflection dataset in the Western Mediterranean in general and in the BP in particular was performed, with the aim of refining the mapping of the Messinian units covering the area. To restitute the depositional history of the MSC evaporites of the BP, a detailed comparison with the Messinian evaporitic units of the Sicilian Caltanissetta Basin was carried out, in which a discussion on how this history matches the existing 3-stages chrono-stratigraphic ‘consensus model’ is illustrated. The next step consisted in the restoration of the paleo-bathymetry of the BP at the beginning of the MSC, focusing on the relatively less-deformed basin located in the central part of the BP and called the Central Mallorca Depression (CMD). To achieve this restoration, structural interpretation in the CMD area was done where the main post-MSC tectonic-related vertical movements that altered the MSC paleo-bathymetry were identified. Then 2D and pseudo-3D backstripping analysis were applied in collaboration with other colleagues from the SaltGiant project, to restore the paleo-bathymetry. In the final step, the paleo-bathymetry was used to model the deposition of the MSC evaporite volumes observed in the CMD using physics-based models built on strait hydraulic-control theory. The results show that the MSC units of the CMD could constitute an undeformed analog of those outcropping on-land in the Sicilian Caltanissetta Basin. Moderate post-MSC deformation acted along MSC strike-slip corridors in the CMD following the MSC evaporites deposition, thus altering only locally the paleo-bathymetry. A high amplitude drawdown (>850m) is required during the halite stage of the MSC. The results rise a series of doubts about the current consensus model, still widely accepted. Doubts concern the synchronous onset of salt at the basin scale, the maximum depth of deposition of the Primary Lower Gypsum (PLG) and the timing of formation of the Resedimented Lower Gypsum (RLG). All the results and discussions hint to the need of revision of the current MSC consensus model, as well as the importance of initiating drillings offshore over the BP area, which would help revealing many of the mysteries still buried with the MSG.