Incidence of obliquity and precession-forced Milankovitch cycles in the western Mediterranean: early Messinian sedimentation in the Sorbas Basin (Almería, southern Spain)
Spectral analysis of the Messinian Abad marls in the Cariatiz section (Sorbas Basin, south-eastern Spain) reveals three relevant orders of cyclicity. The most significant cycle is in the lowest frequency (average thickness of 365 cm, 4–5 cycles in the section). It is recorded in the composition of planktic foraminiferal assemblages indicative of surface-water temperature, planktic and benthic stable isotope signals, and carbonate proportions. The planktic assemblages, isotope values and carbonate proportions also record a middle-frequency cycle with an average of 177 cm (9–10 cycles in the section). The highest frequency cycle (average of 132 cm, 12–13 cycles in the section) is mainly reflected in siliciclastic and calcite proportions. Age constraints and cycle patterns suggest that the lowest frequency cycle was forced by orbital obliquity, whereas the two higher-frequency ones are related to precession. Obliquity seems to have controlled major changes in surface-water temperature in the Sorbas Basin during the early Messinian. Surface-water temperature was also affected by precession, with changes in weathering and run-off. Spectral analysis has also been applied to vertical shifts of reef facies throughout the progradation of the Cariatiz reef. This reef is coeval with the Cariatiz section. Vertical shifts of reef talus breccias point to the existence of 4–5 major cycles of sea-level change, whereas 7–9 higher-frequency cycles are reflected in the repeated occurrence of lowstand, non-reefal deposits. Correlation with the cycles observed at the Cariatiz section suggests that obliquity forced glacio-eustatic sea-level oscillations in the western Mediterranean during the Late Miocene.