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Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis

The Eastern and Western Mediterranean are separated by an elevated plateau that regulates water exchange between these two basins. The Maltese archipelago, situated atop this topographic high, offers a unique window into the evolution of this plateau in the lead up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis....

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Autores principales: Bialik, Or M., Zammit, Raymond, Micallef, Aaron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8359163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34413980
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dep2.138
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author Bialik, Or M.
Zammit, Raymond
Micallef, Aaron
author_facet Bialik, Or M.
Zammit, Raymond
Micallef, Aaron
author_sort Bialik, Or M.
collection PubMed
description The Eastern and Western Mediterranean are separated by an elevated plateau that regulates water exchange between these two basins. The Maltese archipelago, situated atop this topographic high, offers a unique window into the evolution of this plateau in the lead up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The Upper Coralline Limestone Formation was deposited between the late Tortonian and the early Messinian and was probably terminated by palaeoceanographic events related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. It represents the youngest Miocene sedimentary deposits outcropping in the Maltese archipelago. This shallow‐water carbonate unit can be used to trace palaeoenvironmental changes atop the sill between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and to explain the possible water flow restrictions to the Eastern Mediterranean that could have preceded the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Here field surveys, and analysis of the depositional environment within the Upper Coralline Limestone in Malta, are combined with recently acquired multichannel seismic reflection profiles between Malta and Gozo, to reconstruct the depositional sequence in the Malta Plateau during the late Miocene. The Upper Coralline Limestone consists of multiple coralline and larger benthic foraminifera dominated facies, extending from subtidal to intertidal environments. These accumulated in two depositional cycles observed in both outcrop and seismic reflection data. Each cycle exhibits an early aggradation–progradation phase followed by a progradation phase and a final aggradation phase. These manifest themselves in the outcrops as shallowing and deepening upwards phases. These were deposited above a deep water unit and are indicative of a preceding uplift phase followed by filling of the accommodation space through the deposition of the Upper Coralline Limestone Formation in shallow marine depths. The presence of this highly elevated sill during the late Miocene could have restricted circulation to the eastern basin.
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spelling pubmed-83591632021-08-17 Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis Bialik, Or M. Zammit, Raymond Micallef, Aaron Depos Rec Original Research Articles The Eastern and Western Mediterranean are separated by an elevated plateau that regulates water exchange between these two basins. The Maltese archipelago, situated atop this topographic high, offers a unique window into the evolution of this plateau in the lead up to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The Upper Coralline Limestone Formation was deposited between the late Tortonian and the early Messinian and was probably terminated by palaeoceanographic events related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. It represents the youngest Miocene sedimentary deposits outcropping in the Maltese archipelago. This shallow‐water carbonate unit can be used to trace palaeoenvironmental changes atop the sill between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean and to explain the possible water flow restrictions to the Eastern Mediterranean that could have preceded the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Here field surveys, and analysis of the depositional environment within the Upper Coralline Limestone in Malta, are combined with recently acquired multichannel seismic reflection profiles between Malta and Gozo, to reconstruct the depositional sequence in the Malta Plateau during the late Miocene. The Upper Coralline Limestone consists of multiple coralline and larger benthic foraminifera dominated facies, extending from subtidal to intertidal environments. These accumulated in two depositional cycles observed in both outcrop and seismic reflection data. Each cycle exhibits an early aggradation–progradation phase followed by a progradation phase and a final aggradation phase. These manifest themselves in the outcrops as shallowing and deepening upwards phases. These were deposited above a deep water unit and are indicative of a preceding uplift phase followed by filling of the accommodation space through the deposition of the Upper Coralline Limestone Formation in shallow marine depths. The presence of this highly elevated sill during the late Miocene could have restricted circulation to the eastern basin. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-03-02 2021-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8359163/ /pubmed/34413980 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dep2.138 Text en © 2021 The Authors. The Depositional Record published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association of Sedimentologists. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research Articles
Bialik, Or M.
Zammit, Raymond
Micallef, Aaron
Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title_full Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title_fullStr Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title_full_unstemmed Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title_short Architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the Upper Coralline Limestone formation, Malta—Implications for Eastern Mediterranean restriction prior to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
title_sort architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the upper coralline limestone formation, malta—implications for eastern mediterranean restriction prior to the messinian salinity crisis
topic Original Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8359163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34413980
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dep2.138
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