A fast refill of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis? Looking for independent evidence

Abstract

One of the main competing scenarios proposed for the termination of the Messinian salinity crisis consists of a geologically-rapid refill of the Mediterranean after a km-scale drawdown of the Mediterranean Sea level. The main evidence supporting this Zanclean Flood scenario is a nearly 400 km long and several hundred meters deep erosion channel across the Strait of Gibraltar. This erosion channel extends from the Gulf of Cadiz to the Algerian Basin and implies the excavation of ca. 1000 km3 of Miocene sediment and older bedrock. However, additional evidence supporting this catastrophic flood hypothesis is missing, other than the fast transition from MSC deposits to open-marine facies. Here we test two consequences that an outburst flood of the Mediterranean should imply: First, an excavated channel similar to the one across the Gibraltar Strait should be present in the old sill separating the east and west Mediterranean domains (none has been yet reported). A second smoking gun would be finding the present emplacement of the materials eroded during the Zanclean flood (but quantitative predictions of where to look for them are still missing).