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Messinian salinity crisis

The Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) was a dramatic paleoceanographic event in the late Miocene epoch, spanning approximately 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago, during which the Mediterranean Sea became increasingly isolated from the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in widespread evaporation, hypersalinity, and the massive deposition of evaporite minerals that formed one of the largest salt giants on Earth.^[1]^[2]^[3] This isolation primarily stemmed from the tectonic closure of the Gibraltar gateway, exacerbated by glacio-eustatic sea-level lowering, which restricted water exchange and triggered a cascade of hydrological changes, including the transition from marine to hypersaline conditions and eventual freshening in peripheral basins.^[4]^[1] The MSC unfolded in three distinct stages: an initial phase (ca. 5.97–5.60 Ma) of reduced connectivity marked by widespread gypsum precipitation in shallow marginal basins; a primary deep-basin stage (ca. 5.60–5.55 Ma) characterized by extreme desiccation, halite accumulation, and sea-level drops exceeding 1 km, potentially up to 2 km in central areas; and a terminal stage (ca. 5.55–5.33 Ma) of partial refilling with brackish to freshwater lakes, evidenced by lacustrine deposits and diatomites before the abrupt Zanclean reflooding.^[5]^[1]^[6] Overall, the crisis involved the evaporation of more than 1 million cubic kilometers of seawater, producing evaporite volumes estimated at 0.7–1.2 million km³ across the basin, with profound geological legacies including salt tectonics that influence modern Mediterranean petroleum systems.^[2]^[3] The event's biological repercussions were equally severe, representing the most significant disruption to Mediterranean marine ecosystems in the Cenozoic, with near-total extinction of pre-crisis endemic species like certain foraminifera and nannoplankton, followed by a major biotic turnover and invasion of Atlantic and Paratethyan taxa upon reflooding.^[3]^[7] Additionally, the drastic sea-level fall exposed vast land bridges—such as across the Sicilian and Tyrrhenian regions—facilitating terrestrial faunal migrations between Africa, Europe, and Asia, while the hypersaline conditions and desiccation reshaped regional climates and riverine landscapes.^[2]^[1] Decades of research, including deep-sea drilling and seismic imaging, continue to refine understandings of its timing, drivers, and global teleconnections, underscoring the MSC as a natural analog for studying restricted marine basins and abrupt climate shifts.^[6]^[3]

Discovery and Evidence

Naming and Initial Discoveries

The recognition of extensive evaporite deposits in the Mediterranean region dates back to the 19th century, when geologists observed thick layers of salt and gypsum in Sicilian mines and outcrops. These formations, exposed through mining activities and surface exposures, were interpreted as precipitates from ancient seawater evaporation, with early descriptions provided by Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology (1830–1833), who noted their association with Tertiary strata in Sicily.^[8] Similar observations from boreholes and shallow wells in the Mediterranean margins further highlighted the widespread nature of these deposits by the 1860s, though their full regional extent and synchronicity remained unclear.^[9] The term "Messinian salinity crisis" was coined by Italian geologist Raimondo Selli in 1954, referring to a period of anomalous evaporite accumulation during the Messinian stage of the late Miocene epoch (approximately 7.246–5.33 million years ago). Selli's hypothesis, elaborated in subsequent works (1960, 1964), posited that the Mediterranean experienced hyperhaline conditions leading to massive salt precipitation, rather than complete desiccation, based on onshore stratigraphic correlations across Italy and Sicily.^[10] This naming drew from the established Messinian chronostratigraphic unit, first defined in the 1860s from Sicilian sections, to emphasize the event's timing and scale.^[10] A major breakthrough came from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 13 in 1970, which drilled sites in the Mediterranean Sea and recovered cores of gypsum and other evaporites from depths over 2,000 meters, indicating deposition in a deep-water environment. These findings led to the desiccation hypothesis proposed by William B. F. Ryan, Kenneth J. Hsü, and Maria B. Cita in 1973, suggesting that tectonic closure of the Gibraltar gateway isolated the basin, causing extreme evaporation and near-total desiccation.^[11]^[12] Building on this framework, Steven M. Stanley in the 1970s advanced a detailed model emphasizing tectonic isolation due to Miocene convergence between Africa and Eurasia, which restricted Atlantic inflow and promoted evaporative drawdown, integrating paleogeographic reconstructions with evaporite sedimentology and suggesting eustatic fluctuations as an exacerbating factor.^[13] Pivotal evidence emerged from the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 42A in 1975, which targeted the eastern Mediterranean and recovered cores revealing thick sequences of gypsum and halite interbedded with marls at depths exceeding 2,000 meters, confirming basin-wide evaporite deposition in a deep-water setting. These findings, from sites like 374 and 378, demonstrated that the crisis affected even the abyssal plains, solidifying the desiccation model.^[14] Subsequent seismic surveys in the late 1970s provided further corroboration of the evaporite geometry.^[9]

Confirmation and Recent Findings

The confirmation of the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) as a basin-wide event isolating the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean was significantly advanced through the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 107 in 1986, which targeted the Tyrrhenian Sea and recovered cores from Sites 652, 653, and 654 that penetrated upper Messinian evaporites up to 50 meters thick, including gypsum and halite layers indicative of hypersaline conditions in deep basins exceeding 2,500 meters depth.^[15] These findings revealed underlying anoxic sapropels rich in organic matter, suggesting stratified water columns with bottom-water anoxia prior to widespread evaporite precipitation.^[16] Complementary evidence from ODP Leg 108 in 1986, drilled on the West African continental margin, provided Atlantic-side records of oceanographic changes synchronous with the MSC, including shifts in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and stable isotope ratios that corroborated a major disruption in Mediterranean-Atlantic exchange.^[17] Seismic reflection profiling from the 1990s onward further mapped the lateral extent and volume of Messinian evaporites across the deep Mediterranean, with multichannel surveys in the Ionian and Levantine Basins delineating salt bodies up to 3 kilometers thick, often exhibiting transparent seismic facies due to their halite-dominated composition and mobile salt tectonics.^[18] These profiles, integrated with borehole data, confirmed that evaporites blanketed over 2.5 million square kilometers of the abyssal plain, supporting models of near-total desiccation in central basins while marginal areas preserved pre-MSC marine sediments.^[19] Recent advancements from 2023 to 2025 have refined the onset mechanisms and spatial uniformity of the MSC using integrated geochemical and paleontological approaches. A 2025 study employing molecular organic geochemistry on sediments from the Piedmont Basin (NW Italy) identified biomarkers such as isorenieratane, indicating photic-zone anoxia in marginal basins as early as 5.97 million years ago, contemporaneous with the initial restriction phase.^[20] Similarly, seismic and well-log analyses from the Red Sea in a 2025 Nature Communications Earth & Environment paper documented evaporite sequences and erosional unconformities signaling complete desiccation around 5.97 million years ago, likely triggered by the propagating effects of Mediterranean isolation via the Suez Rift.^[21] Micropaleontological assemblages combined with oxygen and carbon stable isotope profiles from the same Piedmont Basin sections, as detailed in a 2025 Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology study, pinpoint the evaporite onset at approximately 5.96 million years ago through abrupt shifts in planktonic foraminifera diversity and δ¹⁸O enrichment up to +4‰, evidencing hypersalinity thresholds.^[22] Basin-scale modeling updated in 2024, incorporating chlorine isotope ratios (δ³⁷Cl) from deep-sea salt cores, quantifies a profound sea-level drawdown equivalent to 70% loss of Mediterranean water volume during the primary evaporite stage (5.60–5.33 million years ago), with evaporite accumulation exceeding 1 million cubic kilometers derived from progressive Atlantic restriction.^[23] These findings underscore the crisis's role as a geologically instantaneous analogue for extreme climate-driven isolation events.

Chronology and Phases

Overall Timeline

The Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) occurred between approximately 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago (Ma), spanning the latter part of the late Miocene Messinian stage.^[24] This duration encompasses a period of profound paleoceanographic change in the Mediterranean basin, driven initially by the progressive restriction of Atlantic water inflow through the Gibraltar seaway. The onset at ~5.97 Ma involved initial restriction leading to gypsum precipitation in marginal basins, while the Messinian Erosion Surface—a widespread erosional feature indicating significant basin desiccation—developed during the subsequent deep desiccation phase starting around 5.60 Ma.^[4]^[6] The initial phase of evaporite deposition, characterized by widespread gypsum precipitation in marginal basins, took place between ~5.97 and 5.60 Ma, reflecting progressive evaporative conditions following restriction.^[25] The crisis culminated at 5.33 Ma with the Zanclean transgression, a rapid reflooding event that restored full marine connectivity and marked the Miocene-Pliocene boundary.^[24] Absolute and relative dating of the MSC relies on multiple complementary methods, including magnetostratigraphy to correlate magnetic polarity reversals in sedimentary sequences, astronomically tuned cyclostratigraphy to align Milankovitch cycles with insolation patterns, and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology on interbedded volcanic ash layers for direct radiometric calibration.^[26]^[27] These approaches have established a robust temporal framework, with recent refinements from 2024–2025 studies using stable isotope correlations adjusting the onset to 5.971 ± 0.004 Ma.^[28]^[29]

Cyclic Deposition Patterns

The Messinian salinity crisis featured five to six major cycles of evaporite deposition, alternating with episodes of dilution that reflect fluctuating hydrological conditions in the Mediterranean basin. These cycles were primarily driven by precession-forced climate variability, which modulated regional aridity and precipitation patterns on timescales of approximately 21,000 years, leading to periodic intensification of evaporation and subsequent freshwater influx during humid phases.^[30]^[31] Recent 2025 modeling indicates that river erosion contributed to gradual sea-level rises between major drawdowns, influencing clastic input and cycle formation.^[32] The initial phase of cyclic deposition is represented by the Primary Lower Unit (PLG), consisting of stacked gypsum cycles deposited in marginal basins between approximately 5.97 and 5.60 million years ago. In these shallow settings, each cycle typically comprises a basal gypsum bed overlain by marly or clayey layers, recording repeated drawdown and refilling events under increasingly restricted marine conditions. For instance, in Sicilian sections, these cycles exhibit thicknesses up to 100 meters per unit, with sedimentary structures indicating sabkha-like environments during peak aridity.^[33]^[34] Subsequent cycles involved the accumulation of upper evaporites, dominated by halite and potash minerals in the deeper central basins, interspersed with resedimented clastic deposits that signal widespread erosion of exposed margins during lowstands. These upper units, forming after the PLG, show halite platforms and potash evaporites in subsiding depocenters, with intercalated conglomerates and mudstones derived from fluvial incision on desiccated terrains. Recent basin modeling from 2025 indicates that each cycle involved kilometric-scale sea-level fluctuations, with drops of 1 to 2 kilometers facilitating the exposure and erosion that supplied clastics to the basins.^[35]^[32] Cycle thickness and composition varied markedly between marginal and deep basins, reflecting bathymetric and hydrodynamic gradients. In marginal areas like Sicily, PLG cycles are thicker and more gypsum-rich due to proximity to inflow points and shallow-water precipitation, whereas in deep Levantine basins, equivalent lower cycles are thinner and finer-grained, transitioning upward to massive halite sequences exceeding 1 kilometer in thickness during upper evaporite phases. This lateral differentiation underscores the role of basin-restricted circulation in amplifying cyclic signals.^[25]^[36]

Synchronism Versus Diachronism

The debate on the synchronism versus diachronism of evaporite deposition during the Messinian salinity crisis centers on whether the process of basin desiccation and salt precipitation occurred simultaneously across the Mediterranean or progressed variably based on local hydrological conditions and basin morphology. Proponents of the synchronism hypothesis argue that a basin-wide desiccation event was triggered by the full closure of the Atlantic-Mediterranean connection at the Gibraltar gateway around 5.97 Ma, leading to uniform evaporative drawdown throughout the Mediterranean. This view is supported by tuned cyclostratigraphy, which reveals aligned precession cycles in pre-evaporite successions across multiple sites, indicating a coherent astronomical forcing that synchronized the onset of restriction and initial evaporite formation.^[37] In contrast, arguments for diachronism highlight that shallow marginal basins experienced earlier desiccation and evaporite precipitation compared to deeper central basins, with gypsum deposition in peripheral areas beginning as early as ~5.97 Ma and halite in deep basins delayed until ~5.60 Ma. This temporal offset is evidenced by seismic profiles showing progradational patterns and isotopic gradients (e.g., δ¹⁸O and δ³⁴S enrichments) that suggest progressive isolation due to differential sill elevations and local hydrological restrictions. For instance, in the eastern Mediterranean, bio- and magnetostratigraphic data from deep-basin cores indicate a delay in halite precipitation relative to gypsum in adjacent shallow platforms.^[38] A key distinction in evaporite types underscores this spatial variability: gypsum primarily formed in shallow marginal basins under subaerial or very shallow marine conditions, while halite dominated in the deeper sub-basins where brines could concentrate to higher salinities without immediate desiccation. Recent studies from 2023 to 2025, incorporating modeling of basin hydrology and sill dynamics, favor a partial diachronism scenario, with synchronous initial restriction but diachronous evaporite deposition featuring lags of up to ~0.4 Myr between marginal gypsum and deep halite due to variable sill depths and brine flow.^[39]^[40]

Causes

Tectonic Isolation Mechanisms

The Messinian salinity crisis was initiated by the progressive isolation of the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, primarily driven by the convergence between the African and Eurasian plates. This tectonic interaction caused the uplift of the Betic-Rif arc in the western Mediterranean and the Sicilian sill in the central region, effectively narrowing and eventually closing the Gibraltar gateway around 5.97 million years ago. The Betic-Rif system, formed as a result of compressional forces from northward African plate motion, elevated structural highs that restricted Atlantic inflow, transforming the once-open seaway into a series of shallow sills. Recent modeling indicates that erosion from Atlantic inflow competed with tectonic uplift, prolonging shallow connectivity at Gibraltar.^[41] Preceding the crisis during the Tortonian stage (approximately 11.6 to 7.2 million years ago), tectonic compression along the Betic-Rif arc induced regional regression and subaerial erosion across emerging land bridges and marginal basins. This early uplift and erosional phase contributed to the formation of the Messinian Erosion Surface, a widespread unconformity that reflects the preparatory tectonic reconfiguration of the Mediterranean margins before full restriction. The evolution of the Gibraltar sill involved an initial phase of shallowing to depths of around 100 meters, sustained by a balance between tectonic uplift and localized erosion, prior to complete closure. Numerical modeling of plate convergence rates during this period estimates 2-3 cm per year, highlighting the gradual but relentless compressional forces that outpaced erosional deepening and sealed the gateway. Prior to achieving total isolation, the eastern Mediterranean maintained limited connectivity through temporary fluvial outflows, including contributions from the proto-Nile River and the Red Sea gateway, which briefly alleviated restriction before tectonic uplift severed these pathways as well.

Evaporative and Hydrological Drivers

The evaporative drivers of the Messinian salinity crisis were dominated by persistently high rates of water loss from the Mediterranean basin, estimated at approximately 1 to 2 meters per year, driven by an arid regional climate that intensified following initial tectonic restriction of Atlantic inflow. This evaporation significantly outpaced freshwater inputs from major rivers such as the Nile and Rhone, which provided only about 0.1 meters per year equivalent in basin-wide terms, resulting in a net water deficit by a factor of roughly 10 to 20. These imbalances led to rapid supersaturation of seawater, initiating widespread precipitation of evaporites like gypsum and halite across marginal and deep-basin settings.^[30] Progressive sea-level drawdown accompanied this evaporative regime, with the Mediterranean basin experiencing desiccation to depths of approximately 0.8 to 2.1 kilometers below present levels in its deepest parts (varying by sub-basin, with estimates ranging from ~600 m to over 2 km and ongoing debate on the maximum extent), exposing large portions of the seafloor and enabling the incision of subaerial fluvial canyons by rivers like the Nile.^[23]^[42] This drawdown was not uniform but deepened over time as evaporation continued unchecked, transforming the basin into a series of hypersaline lakes and dry depressions.^[23] Hydrological models of the crisis describe an evolution from two-way restriction—where limited Atlantic inflow balanced partial outflow—to one-way outflow of denser brines, and finally to full isolation, exacerbating evaporative loss.^[23] Recent quantifications using chlorine and oxygen isotope data from halite deposits confirm this progression, with evaporation fluxes during the deep desiccation phase reaching levels sufficient to account for the observed salt accumulation over approximately 0.05 million years (50,000 years).^[32] These models, often implemented as box simulations of basin hydrology, highlight how tectonic sill uplift at gateways like Gibraltar served as a prerequisite for the shift to dominant evaporative control.^[43] The overall salt budget reflects the scale of this evaporative drawdown, with approximately 0.9 million cubic kilometers of evaporites, including halite, deposited, representing 10 to 20 percent of the total volume of Miocene-age salt giants globally.^[44]^[18] This massive precipitation extracted a substantial fraction of dissolved salts from the basin's water column, underscoring the hydrological isolation's role in creating one of Earth's largest known evaporite systems.^[32]

Paleoclimate Relationships

Global Climate Influences

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was significantly modulated by Milankovitch cycles, particularly Earth's orbital precession, which operates on approximately 20-21 thousand-year (kyr) timescales and drives alternating periods of aridity and humidity across the circum-Mediterranean region.^[30] During phases of low summer insolation at high northern latitudes, precession-induced weakening of the African monsoon led to reduced precipitation and river runoff, amplifying evaporation rates in the semi-enclosed Mediterranean basin and promoting hypersaline conditions conducive to evaporite deposition.^[45] This orbital forcing is evident in the cyclic sedimentary records of primary lower gypsum (PLG) units, where lithological alternations reflect precession-paced hydrological imbalances, with arid intervals enhancing net water loss through evaporation exceeding inflow. Recent studies (as of 2025) further highlight orbital modulation of basin hydrology during the MSC's early stages.^[30]^[46] The late Miocene expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet, beginning around 6.2 Ma and intensifying through approximately 5.5 Ma, contributed to global cooling and a glacio-eustatic sea-level lowering of approximately 50–60 meters, which exacerbated the isolation of the Mediterranean by reducing Atlantic inflow through the restricted Gibraltar gateway.^[47] This cooling phase, marking the growth of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, aligned with the progression of the MSC, including the main desiccation event around 5.60 Ma, as lower global sea levels deepened the sill at the basin's outlet and intensified evaporative drawdown.^[48] The resultant drop in sea level amplified the basin's sensitivity to climatic fluctuations, facilitating the transition from marginal to full evaporitic conditions across the Mediterranean. However, the exact interplay between glacio-eustatic and tectonic drivers remains debated.^[47] Atmospheric CO₂ concentrations declined from around 400 parts per million (ppm) to approximately 300 ppm during the late Miocene, enhancing aridity and supporting the expansion of Antarctic ice while reducing global temperatures by several degrees Celsius.^[49] Recent analyses (as of 2023) link this CO₂ drawdown partly to the progressive closure of the Central American Seaway, which altered ocean circulation patterns, diminished inter-ocean nutrient and heat exchange, and indirectly promoted carbon sequestration through enhanced biological productivity in the Atlantic.^[50] This seaway restriction, ongoing from the middle to late Miocene, contributed to a cooler, drier global climate that amplified Mediterranean evaporation and the crisis's severity.^[51] Global teleconnections further influenced the MSC through the weakening of the African monsoon system, driven by precession and late Miocene cooling, which significantly reduced Nile River discharge during arid orbital minima and diminished freshwater input to the eastern Mediterranean.^[45] This runoff reduction, tied to decreased insolation and shifted atmospheric circulation, intensified the basin's negative water balance, promoting widespread evaporite precipitation and desiccation phases.^[44] Such monsoon variability underscores the crisis's linkage to broader hemispheric climate dynamics, where weakened summer precipitation over North Africa directly curtailed the primary fluvial supply to the isolated sea.^[45]

Regional Mediterranean Climate Shifts

During the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), the Mediterranean region underwent a profound shift to hyper-arid conditions, characterized by drastically reduced precipitation and elevated temperatures compared to modern values. Pollen records from peri-Mediterranean sites indicate annual rainfall levels below 200 mm in southern and central areas, fostering the expansion of open steppe vegetation dominated by grasses (Poaceae) and Asteraceae, with sparse tree cover limited to montane refugia.^[52] These arid landscapes were punctuated by frequent dust storms, as evidenced by aeolian deposits associated with the exposed basin floors, which facilitated wind transport of fine sediments across the desiccated terrain.^[53] Concurrently, mean annual temperatures rose by 5–10°C above present-day levels, with sea surface temperatures reaching up to 32°C in the residual water bodies, driven by intensified solar heating in the isolated basin.^[54] Stable isotope analyses of Messinian evaporites provide direct evidence of extreme evaporative processes in the basin waters. Recent studies (as of 2024) of fluid inclusions and hydration water in gypsum deposits reveal δ¹⁸O enrichments up to more than +2‰, reflecting progressive evaporation that concentrated isotopes as freshwater inputs dwindled and hypersaline conditions prevailed.^[55] These values signify a hydrological regime where evaporation rates far exceeded precipitation and riverine influx, amplifying salinity and aridity across the region. The desiccation process engendered positive feedback loops that intensified regional aridity. Exposure of vast salt flats increased surface albedo, reducing heat absorption and altering local atmospheric circulation to favor drier conditions; this, in turn, suppressed convective rainfall and perpetuated the steppe-dominated vegetation cover observed in pollen spectra.^[52] Such feedbacks were modulated briefly by global precession cycles but remained distinctly regional in their Mediterranean expression.

Geological Impacts

Evaporite Formation and Distribution

The Messinian evaporites exhibit a characteristic mineralogical sequence reflecting progressive concentration of brines during deposition. The lower evaporite units primarily consist of gypsum (CaSO₄·2H₂O), often in the form of selenite or anhydrite, formed in relatively less concentrated saline environments.^[56] As evaporation intensified, these transitioned to thick halite (NaCl) deposits in the primary salt bodies, representing the main phase of hypersaline precipitation.^[57] The upper evaporite units include more soluble potassium and magnesium salts, such as polyhalite (K₂Ca₂Mg(SO₄)₄·2H₂O), indicating extreme brine saturation in the final stages of the crisis. These evaporites are distributed unevenly across the Mediterranean, with thicknesses varying by depositional setting. In deep basins such as the Balearic and Ionian, deposits reach 1-3 km, forming vast salt giants due to accumulation in isolated, subsiding depressions.^[58] Marginal platforms, like those in the Apennines foredeep, feature thinner sequences, typically under 1 km, as shallower settings limited precipitation volumes.^[59] Formation processes differed by water depth and basin geometry. In shallow marginal areas, sabkha-style evaporation dominated, with gypsum precipitating on supratidal flats amid periodic wetting and drying cycles.^[60] Deeper basins hosted brine pool precipitation, where dense hypersaline waters pooled below a less saline surface layer, enabling halite and polyhalite to accumulate in stratified, anoxic conditions.^[61] Recent 2025 seismic mapping in the Levant Basin has illuminated salt tectonics, revealing multiphase deformation and original distribution patterns through high-resolution reflection data.^[62] The total volume of these evaporites is estimated at approximately 1 million km³, making it the largest known Miocene evaporite deposit and a supergiant comparable to those in the Gulf of Mexico.^[18] This immense scale underscores the crisis's role in transforming the Mediterranean into a vast evaporative sink.

Desiccated Basin Geography

During the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC), approximately 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago, the Mediterranean basin underwent profound morphological transformations due to extreme evaporative drawdown, exposing vast portions of the seafloor as a hyperarid desert plain. Seismic and outcrop data reveal that the basin floor, previously submerged to depths of up to 3 km in its deepest parts, was laid bare, creating a subaerial landscape characterized by deflationary plains and entrenched river systems. Fluvial incisions, carved by rivers such as the paleo-Nile, reached depths of up to 1 km, with the Nile Delta canyon serving as a prominent example; this feature, preserved in subsurface seismic profiles, extends over 1,000 km from the African continent into the Eastern Mediterranean, evidencing vigorous erosion under desiccated conditions.^[53]^[32]^[42] The geographic reconfiguration of the basin was equally dramatic, with sea-level falls of kilometric scale connecting previously insular landmasses and partitioning the domain into isolated sub-basins. For instance, Sicily became linked to the African mainland via an emergent land bridge across the narrowed Sicily Channel, facilitating terrestrial dispersal while the central Mediterranean troughs deepened into steep-walled canyons. The Adriatic sector, isolated by topographic sills, functioned as a brackish to hypersaline lake, with its shallow sill at the Otranto Strait preventing full integration with the main basin evaporites. Recent chlorine isotope analyses from 2024 indicate that the overall sea-level drop equated to about 70% loss of the Mediterranean's water volume, transforming the basin into a mosaic of hypersaline lakes and dry pans, with residual water bodies concentrated in tectonically subsiding depocenters like the Levantine and Tyrrhenian regions.^[23]^[32] The Messinian Erosional Surface (MES), a regional unconformity, documents this widespread subaerial exposure through a combination of fluvial, karstic, and coastal erosion features. This surface, identifiable on seismic profiles as a high-amplitude reflector, exhibits deep karst networks developed on exposed carbonate platforms, particularly along the northern African and southern European margins, where dissolution created sinkholes and poljes up to hundreds of meters deep. Marginal alluvial fans, sourced from the encircling orogens such as the Alps and Atlas Mountains, prograded into the basin, depositing conglomeratic aprons that transitioned basinward into finer-grained playa sediments.^[9]^[63] Emerging 2025 evidence from the Red Sea gateway further illuminates the interconnected desiccation dynamics affecting the Levantine basin. Seismic and biostratigraphic data demonstrate that the Red Sea underwent complete desiccation around 6.2 million years ago, coinciding with the MSC onset, which restricted Atlantic inflow and propagated evaporative stress eastward through the proto-Suez connection. This event triggered major erosional downcutting in the Gulf of Suez and northern Red Sea, linking the hypersaline conditions of the Levantine sub-basin to broader Mediterranean drawdown and enhancing regional aridity.^[21]

Biological Effects

Marine Ecosystem Disruptions

The Messinian salinity crisis (MSC), spanning approximately 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago, triggered profound disruptions to Mediterranean marine ecosystems through progressive isolation from the Atlantic Ocean, leading to extreme salinity fluctuations and habitat fragmentation.^[7] Recent analyses of fossil records indicate that approximately 96% of pre-MSC marine species in the Mediterranean went extinct during this period, with only about 4% surviving.^[7] This massive biodiversity loss affected diverse taxa, as the basin's transformation into a series of hypersaline lakes and desiccated depressions eliminated suitable habitats for most marine-adapted organisms.^[7] Salinity gradients during the MSC escalated dramatically from normal marine levels of around 35–40 g/L to hypersaline conditions exceeding 100 g/L in many sub-basins, particularly during the later stages of evaporite deposition.^[64] These shifts caused widespread benthic collapse, as bottom-dwelling communities could not tolerate the osmotic stress and density stratification that inhibited oxygenation.^[7] Concurrently, anoxic events intensified in deeper, stratified waters, forming organic-rich sapropels that preserved evidence of stressed ecosystems but signaled the demise of aerobic benthic life.^[65] Assemblage analyses reveal sharp declines in diverse benthic foraminiferal groups, such as bolivinids and uvigerinids, replaced by opportunistic, low-diversity forms tolerant of dysoxic conditions, while ostracod faunas underwent a turnover, with euryhaline species briefly dominating before local extinctions.^[66]^[3] Planktonic communities experienced equally severe alterations, with diatoms—key primary producers in pre-MSC marine settings—declining precipitously due to their sensitivity to elevated salinities and reduced nutrient mixing.^[67] In contrast, dinoflagellates proliferated in blooms within sapropel layers, thriving in the stratified, low-oxygen environments that favored their cyst-forming strategies amid fluctuating freshwater inputs.^[67] Planktic foraminifera and ostracod assemblages similarly shifted, showing reduced diversity and the appearance of brackish-water indicators, reflecting the basin's oscillation between marine, hypersaline, and lacustrine states.^[7] The narrowing and eventual closure of the Gibraltar gateway not only amplified evaporative drawdown but also erected formidable barriers to faunal migrations.^[7] These gateway effects underscored the crisis's role in reshaping biogeographic patterns, preventing gene flow and accelerating regional extinctions.^[7] Upon reflooding, the post-crisis basin saw a major biotic turnover, including invasions of Atlantic and Paratethyan taxa.^[3]^[7]

Terrestrial and Evolutionary Responses

Pollen records from the peri-Mediterranean region document a marked shift in terrestrial vegetation during the Messinian salinity crisis, transitioning from subtropical forests dominated by evergreen oaks, laurels, and pines to arid steppes characterized by herbaceous taxa and xerophytic shrubs.^[68] This change, evident in cores from the Aegean Sea and Italian basins, reflects increased aridity and reduced humidity, with herbaceous pollen percentages rising to over 50% in some sequences by the mid-Messinian. Orbital-scale fluctuations amplified these shifts, linking vegetation dynamics to precession-driven climate variability. The desiccation of the Mediterranean created exposed land corridors, facilitating Afro-Eurasian faunal exchanges among terrestrial mammals. Rodents such as gerbils and crested rats (e.g., Prolagus and Hystrix), along with larger herbivores like hippopotamids (Kenyopotamus cf. disius), migrated from Africa to Iberia and other peri-Mediterranean areas via these routes.^[69] Fossil evidence from Spanish sites indicates these exchanges were brief but significant, occurring during the late Messinian when sea levels dropped dramatically, allowing dispersal across the basin floor.^[69] In contrast to marine ecosystem disruptions, these migrations enhanced terrestrial biodiversity through intercontinental mixing.^[69] The crisis triggered evolutionary bursts in salt-tolerant plants, particularly halophytes adapted to hypersaline conditions in the desiccated basins. In the genus Limonium (Plumbaginaceae), diversification rates increased significantly during the Messinian, with molecular phylogenies linking speciation events to the onset of evaporite deposition and habitat fragmentation.^[70] This led to the radiation of facultative halophytes, which exploited newly available saline soils and ephemeral water bodies. Aridification associated with the crisis may have influenced early hominid dispersal routes by altering connectivity between African and Eurasian landscapes. Tectonic isolation and resulting hyperaridity in North Africa potentially funneled hominin populations toward eastern corridors, promoting bipedal adaptations in response to open, drier habitats.^[71] Fossil and climatic modeling support this link, suggesting the Messinian event contributed to broader Neogene patterns in hominin evolution.^[71]

Termination and Recovery

Zanclean Reflooding Event

The Zanclean reflooding event, dated to approximately 5.33 million years ago, terminated the Messinian Salinity Crisis through a massive megaflood that breached the tectonic barrier at the Strait of Gibraltar, unleashing Atlantic waters into the desiccated Mediterranean basin. This cataclysmic inflow rapidly restored marine conditions, transforming the hypersaline, partially evaporated sea into a fully connected oceanic realm.^[72] Hydrological models indicate that peak discharge rates during the flood reached 68 to 100 Sverdrups (Sv; 1 Sv = 1 million m³/s), far exceeding modern river outflows and rivaling the largest known Quaternary megafloods in scale.^[73] The initial breach at Gibraltar funneled water directly into the western Mediterranean, with subsequent overflow pathways developing across the Sicily Sill as basin water levels rose; 2024 analyses of land-sea sedimentary indicators suggest the Noto Canyon's theatre-shaped head was eroded by the megaflood, supporting a multi-phase ingress.^[73] The intense flooding phase persisted for 1 to 2 years, during which turbulent flows incised and eroded significant thicknesses of sediments and evaporites, with local incision exceeding 200 m, reshaping the basin floor and redistributing sediments across the region.^[32] Recent 2025 modeling in Science Advances elucidates this as a multi-gate refilling process, where sequential breaches amplified the flood's efficiency and minimized prolonged desiccation effects.^[32] Geological evidence substantiates the event's violence, including coarse-grained conglomerates and megabreccias at basin margins—deposits of ripped-up evaporites and basement rocks transported by high-velocity currents—and high-resolution seismic profiles imaging sinuous, deeply entrenched flood channels extending from Gibraltar into the deep basin.^[72] These features, observed in outcrops and subsurface data from the Alboran and Ionian basins, underscore the flood's erosive power and rapid transit of Atlantic waters.^[73] Despite these insights, debates persist on whether the reflooding was a single cataclysmic event or involved more gradual phases, as discussed in recent reviews.^[6]

Post-Crisis Basin Replenishment

Following the Zanclean reflooding event, the Mediterranean basin experienced rapid sedimentation dominated by turbidite flows, which effectively buried the underlying Messinian evaporite deposits across much of the deep-sea floor. These post-flood turbidites, characterized by chaotic and coarse-grained sedimentary bodies up to several hundred meters thick, were primarily sourced from the erosion of the Sicilian sill and surrounding margins during the initial inflow, leading to widespread infilling of the desiccated topography. In the western Ionian Basin, for instance, geophysical data reveal an extensive buried chaotic unit directly overlying the Messinian salts, marking the immediate depositional response to the megaflood. This burial process preserved the evaporite sequence while stabilizing the basin substrate for subsequent marine recovery.^[74]^[72] Salinity levels in the Mediterranean began to normalize after the reflood, with full transition from hypersaline conditions to near-modern oceanic values occurring over approximately 33,000 years through turbulent mixing and deep-water renewal. This adjustment is evidenced by changes in sedimentary geochemistry, including the onset of normal marine carbonate precipitation in the lowermost Zanclean Trubi Formation marls, which overlie the evaporites. The process was facilitated by the high-energy water exchange through the reopened Gibraltar Strait, preventing prolonged stratification.^[75] Over the longer term, the Zanclean transgression progressively restored full marine connections between the Mediterranean sub-basins and the Atlantic, enabling the reestablishment of deep-water circulation patterns that persist today. This involved a series of eustatic and tectonic adjustments that deepened gateways like the Sicilian Channel, promoting zonal flow and nutrient exchange. Concurrently, the mobile Messinian salt layers underwent halokinesis, with salt flowage driving ongoing subsidence in peripheral basins such as the Levantine and Nile Delta regions through diapirism and gravitational spreading. These dynamics have shaped modern bathymetry, creating accommodation space for Plio-Quaternary sediments.^[76]^[77] Recent 2025 investigations using isotopic analyses reveal a transient phase of oxygenation in the post-reflood Mediterranean, with changes in oxygen and carbon isotopes (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) in benthic foraminifera indicating initial anoxic conditions followed by oxygenation over thousands of years. These studies, based on cores from the eastern Mediterranean, also document lags in benthic repopulation, with deep-sea communities showing delayed diversification for up to 33,000 years post-reflood due to lingering low-oxygen substrates and sediment instability. Such evidence underscores the staggered nature of basin stabilization.^[75] The enduring legacy of the Messinian evaporites, often termed "salt giants" for their vast thickness exceeding 1 km in places, continues to influence present-day tectonics via ongoing salt tectonics, which accommodate extension and compression in the Mediterranean plate boundary zone. In the Levantine Basin, for example, salt withdrawal has facilitated fault propagation and basin inversion, contributing to seismic hazards. Moreover, these evaporites serve as critical seals for hydrocarbon reservoirs, trapping significant natural gas accumulations in structures like the Tamar and Leviathan fields offshore Israel.^[78]^[79]

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