Éditeur(s) : Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd
Résumé : Quantitative analyses on calcareous nannofossil assemblages on high temporal resolution (600-800 years) have been carried out from Core KC01B in the Ionian Sea (Eastern Mediterranean) throughout Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 13-9, between 500 and 300 ka. This is an interval of considerable climate changes, known as the Mid-Brunhes event, which includes MIS 11, considered as a possible analogue for future interglacial conditions. In the Mediterranean core, the interval is characterized by the dominance of Gephyrocapsa spp., as also known from ocean records. Calcareous nannofossil abundance fluctuations have been interpreted in terms of modification of sea surface primary productivity/water stratification and temperature. Specifically, the increase in abundance of Gephyrocapsa caribbeanica and small Gephyrocapsa coupled with decreases of Florisphaera profunda, Syracosphaera spp. and Rhabdosphaera spp. suggests enhanced primary productivity/mixed surface waters during interglacial stages and at the Terminations, which can be interpreted in terms of interaction between climate changes and mesoscale oceanographic circulation. On the other hand, distributions of Calciosolenia spp., Oolithotus spp. and Umbilicosphaera sibogae, which are in phase with delta O-18 curve showing higher abundances at the lighter values of the marine isotope record, are considered as warm-water indicators. Biotic proxies point to peculiar climate dynamics through the MIS 12-11 transition (i.e. Termination V). High productive, cool, low salinity and turbid surface waters characterize the early MIS 11(421-408 ka) and likely reflect enhanced continental humidity/monsoon activity over North Africa and increased runoff into the basin. A late surface water warming with respect to Termination V is established at about 403 ka, during a period of low insolation forcing, almost coeval with the deposition of sapropel S11. A climate optimum, lasting about 15 ky (403-389 ka), is then recorded during a period of low insolation forcing centred at 398 ka. The later part of MIS 11 is characterized by climate deterioration at about 389 ka. Comparison with results from subtropical to polar Atlantic records suggests a remarkable relation between Mediterranean and Atlantic climate regimes.
Quaternary International (1040-6182) (Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd), 2013-03 , Vol. 288 , P. 97-111

Droits : 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00181/29194/27593.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.12.007
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00181/29194/

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00175/28649/27076.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00175/28649/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Forty years after the image of the Mediterranean transformed into a giant salty lake was first conceived, the fascinating history of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) still arouses great interest across a large and diverse scientific community. Early outcrop studies which identified severe palaeoenvironmental changes affecting the circum-Mediterranean at the end of the Miocene, were followed by investigations of the marine geology during the 1950s to 1970s. These were fundamental to understanding the true scale and importance of the Messinian event. Now, after a long period of debate over several entrenched but largely untested hypotheses, a unifying stratigraphic framework of MSC events has been constructed. This scenario is derived mainly from onshore data and observations, but incorporates different perspectives for the offshore and provides hypotheses that can be tested by drilling the deep Mediterranean basins.The MSC was an ecological crisis, induced by a powerful combination of geodynamic and climatic drivers, which had a great impact on the subsequent geological history of the Mediterranean area, and on the salinity of the global oceans. These changed the Mediterranean's connections with both the Atlantic Ocean and the freshwater Paratethyan basins, causing high-amplitude fluctuations in the hydrology of the Mediterranean. The MSC developed in three main stages, each of them characterized by different palaeoenvironmental conditions. During the first stage, evaporites precipitated in shallow sub-basins; the MSC peaked in the second stage, when evaporite precipitation shifted to the deepest depocentres; and the third stage was characterized by large-scale environmental fluctuations in a Mediterranean transformed into a brackish water lake.The very high-resolution timescale available for some Late Miocene intervals in the Mediterranean makes it possible to consider environmental variability on extremely short time scales including, in some places, annual changes. Despite this, fundamental questions remain, some of which could be answered through new cores from the deepest Mediterranean basins. Improvements in seismic imaging and drilling techniques over the last few decades make it possible to plan to core the entire basinal Messinian succession for the first time. The resulting data would allow us to decipher the causes of this extreme environmental change and its global-scale consequences.
ISSN: 0025-3227

hal-01115664
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115664
DOI : 10.1016/j.margeo.2014.02.002