Antarctic glacio-eustatic contributions to late Miocene Medi

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TitleAntarctic glacio-eustatic contributions to late Miocene Mediterranean desiccation and refloodingAbstractThe Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was a marked late Neogene oceanographic event during which the Mediterranean Sea evaporated. Its causes remain unresolved, with tectonic restrictions to the Atlantic Ocean or glacio-eustatic restriction of flow during sea-level lowstands, or a mixture of the two mechanisms, being proposed. Here we present the first direct geological evidence of Antarctic ice-sheet (AIS) expansion at the MSC onset and use a Î´18 O record to model relative sea-level changes. Antarctic sedimentary successions indicate AIS expansion at 6 Ma coincident with major MSC desiccation; relative sea-level modelling indicates a prolonged âˆ¼50 m lowstand at the Strait of Gibraltar, which resulted from AIS expansion and local evaporation of sea water in concert with evaporite precipitation that caused lithospheric deformation. Our results reconcile MSC events and demonstrate that desiccation and refilling were timed by the interplay between glacio-eustatic sea-level variations, glacial isostatic adjustment and mantle deformation in response to changing water and evaporite loads. Â© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

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1st AuthorOhneiser, C. AuthorOhneiser, C.Florindo, F.Stocchi, P.Roberts, A.Deconto, R.Pollard, D.Year2015JournalNature CommunicationsVolume6DOI10.1038/ncomms9765URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....a3be259318251f96addf19279PublisherNature Publishing GroupKeywordssea water, deformationdesiccationevaporationevaporiteglacioeustacyice sheetmantleMediterranean environmentMessinianMiocenepaleofloodsea level changeseawater, AntarcticaArticledesiccationenvironmental impactevaporationfloodingGibraltarice sheetlithosphereMediterranean Seamessinian salinity crisispaleoceanographyprecipitationrefloodingsea levelsedimenttime series analysisUpper Miocene, Atlantic OceanMediterranean SeaStrait of Gibraltar

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CitationOhneiser, C., Florindo, F., Stocchi, P., Roberts, A., Deconto, R. and Pollard, D. (2015). Antarctic glacio-eustatic contributions to late Miocene Mediterranean desiccation and reflooding. Nature Communications, 6