Mass wasting records the first stages of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Abstract The geological processes that occurred during the deposition of the Mediterranean salt giant are poorly constrained, limiting our understanding of the earliest phase of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Using three-dimensional seismic reflection data from the northern Levant Basin in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, we investigated a previously unrecognized deposit at the base of the Messinian halite that we interpret as an extensive mass-transport complex (MTC). While MTCs have been described within stratigraphically equivalent deposits in the western Mediterranean Sea, this is the first such MTC documented at the base of the halite in the eastern Mediterranean. The spatial distribution and seismic facies of the MTC suggest a slope failure origin, likely in response to multiple processes including tectonic activity and sea-level fall. Our study indicates that margin instability was diffuse across the entire Mediterranean during the early stages of Messinian halite deposition, with implications for the chronology of erosional events and sediment transport to the deep basin.