EGU23-7864
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7864
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Limited Mediterranean sea-level drop during the Messinian salinity crisis inferred from the buried Nile canyon

Zohar Gvirtzman1,2, Hanneke Heida3, Daniel Garcia-Castellanos3, Oded Bar1,2, Elchanan Zucker1,2, and Yehouda Enzel2
Zohar Gvirtzman et al.
  • 1The geological Survey of Israel, 32 Leibowitz St., Jerusalem, 9692100, Israel
  • 2The Fredy & Nadin Herrman Institue of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
  • 3Gesciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

The extreme Mediterranean sea-level drop during the Messinian salinity crisis has been known for >50 years, but its amplitude and duration remain a challenge. Here we estimate its amplitude by restoring the topography of the Messinian Nile canyon and the vertical position of the Messinian coastline by unloading of post-Messinian sediment and accounting for flexural isostasy and compaction. We estimate the original depth of the geomorphological base level of the Nile River at ~600-m below present sea level, implying a drawdown 2-4 times smaller than previously estimated from the Nile canyon and suggesting that salt precipitated under 1-3-km deep waters. This conclusion is at odds with the nearly-desiccated basin model (>2 km drawdown) dominating the scientific literature for 50 years. Yet, a 600-m drawdown is ca. five times larger than eustatic fluctuations and its impact on the Mediterranean continental margins is incomparable to any glacial sea-level fall.

How to cite: Gvirtzman, Z., Heida, H., Garcia-Castellanos, D., Bar, O., Zucker, E., and Enzel, Y.: Limited Mediterranean sea-level drop during the Messinian salinity crisis inferred from the buried Nile canyon, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-7864, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-7864, 2023.