Fig. 4: Modes of halite accumulation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis deduced from chlorine isotopes of halite and geochemical modeling presented in this work.
a Two phases of halite accumulation. During phase 1, halite accumulates in a brine-filled Mediterranean basin that is connected to the Atlantic Ocean but has a hydrologically restricted outflow; during phase 2, the Mediterranean is fully isolated from the Atlantic Ocean and halite accumulates during a major evaporative drawdown event; b tentative comparison of the phases of halite accumulation (this work) with the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) chrono-stratigraphic stages after CIESM38, Roveri et al. (ref. 3) and Ryan39. Notes: (i) while we can estimate the duration of the two phases of halite accumulation (a), we cannot date them. The tentative correlation with MSC chrono-stratigraphic stages (b) is based on the assumption that halite accumulation is restricted to phase 2 of the MSC3,38,39; (ii) due to lateral erosion-transport processes, at the Aphrodite 2 site the relative thickness of halite layers is different from the halite volumetric ratios at the scale of the eastern Mediterranean basin.
