The Messinian is in the
geologic timescale
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...
the last
age or uppermost
stage of the
Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005
Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the
Tortonian and is followed by the
Zanclean, the first age of the
Pliocene.
The Messinian overlaps the
Turolian European Land Mammal Mega Zone (more precisely MN 12 and 13) and the
Pontian Central European
Paratethys
The Paratethys sea, Paratethys ocean, Paratethys realm or just Paratethys was a large shallow inland sea that stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to the Aral Sea in Central Asia.
Paratethys was peculiar due to its pa ...
Stage. It also overlaps the late
Huayquerian and early
Montehermosan South American Land Mammal Ages, and falls inside the more extensive
Hemphillian North American Land Mammal Age.
During the Messinian, around 6 million years ago, the
Messinian salinity crisis took place, which brought about repeated desiccations of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Definition
The Messinian was introduced by
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
stratigrapher Karl Mayer-Eymar in 1867. Its name comes from the Italian city of
Messina
Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
on
Sicily, where the
Messinian evaporite
The Messinian evaporite deposit is a geological deposit of evaporites which was found on Sicily and named after the city of Messina. It was later found to underlie much of the bed of the Mediterranean Sea, including the L'Atalante basin. It was f ...
deposit is of the same age.
The base of the Messinian is at the first appearance of the
planktonic
foram species ''Globorotalia conomiozea'' and is stratigraphically in the middle of magnetic chronozone C3Br.1r. The
Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Messinian is located in a section at Oued Akrech, near the
Moroccan capital
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
.
[This GSSP was established by Hilgen ''et al.'' (2000)]
The top of the Messinian (the base of the Zanclean Stage and Pliocene Series) lies with the top of magnetic chronozone Cr3 (about 100,000 years before the Thvera normal subchronozone C3n.4n). The top is also close to the
extinction level of the calcareous
nanoplankton species ''Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus'' (the base of
biozone CN10b) and the first appearance of nanoplankton ''
Ceratolithus acutus''.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
External links
GeoWhen Database - MessinianMessinian online - living in an evaporitic world - Mediterranean areaNeogene timescale
at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS
Neogene timescale
at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy
{{coord, 33.9369, N, 6.8125, W, source:wikidata, display=title
*06
Miocene geochronology
Geological ages