Review Article
The Messinian (Late Miocene) Coral Reefs in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar UNESCO Global Geopark
Authors
Abstract
Neogene sedimentary rocks cover extensive areas of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar UNESCO Global Geopark (Almería, SE Spain) although most of the outcropping rocks are Miocene volcanics. The post-volcanic sedimentary rocks include three successive Messinian coral reef units. The lower reefs consist of coral patches of varying dimensions comprising Porites and Tarbellastraea, which grew on carbonate ramps. The second unit is Porites fringing reefs that prograded from shorelines. These two lower units, early Messinian in age, were subaerially exposed and eroded during a relative sea-level drawdown, probably coeval with the Mediterranean Messinian salinity crisis. The last, late Messinian reef unit onlaps the erosion surface and consist of small Porites patches that grew dispersed in oolitic shoals together with microbial carbonates. These low-diversity reefs are the last zooxanthellate coral reefs in the Mediterranean basin and constitute the endpoint of decreasing coral diversity in the region during the Miocene due to disconnection from the Indian Ocean and global cooling. The good exposures and accessibility of these reefs in the arid landscape of the Geopark make them valuable sites for practical training in geology and paleontology at different levels and reference sites for geotourism.
Read the full text of the articleKeywords
Main Subjects
References
Bellon H, Bordet P & Montenat C (1983). Chronologie du magmatisme néogène des Cordillèes Bétiques (Espagne méridionale). Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 25:205–217.
Bialik OM, Frank M, Betzler C, Zammit R & Waldmann ND (2019). Two-step closure of the Miocene Indian Ocean Gateway to the Mediterranean. Scientific Reports. 9:8842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45308-7.
Bourillot R, Vennin E, Kolodka C, Rouchy, JM, Caruso A, Durlet C, Chaix C & Rommevaux V (2009). The role of topography and erosion in the development and architecture of shallow-water coral bioherms (Tortonian–Messinian, Cabo de Gata, SE Spain). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 281:92–114.
Bourillot R, Vennin E, Rouchy JM, Blanc-Valleron MM, Caruso A & Durlet C (2010). The end of the Messinian salinity crisis in the western Mediterranean: insights from the carbonate platforms of south-eastern Spain. Sedimentary Geology. 229:224–253.
Brachert TC, Krautworst UMR & Stueckrad M (2002). Tectono-climatic evolution of a Neogene intramontane basin (Late Miocene Carboneras subbasin, southeast Spain): Revelations from basin mapping and biofacies analysis. Basin Research. 14:503–521.
Braga JC, Martín JM, Riding R, Aguirre J, Sánchez-Almazo IM & Dinarès-Turell J (2006). Testing models for the Messinian salinity crisis: the Messinian record in Almería, SE Spain. Sedimentary Geology. 188–189:131–154.
Darwin CR (1842). The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, Under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy RN.
During the Years 1832 to 1836. Smith Elder: London.
Di Battistini G, Toscani L, Iaccarino S & Villa JM (1987). K/Ar ages and the geological setting of calc-alkaline volcanic rocks from Sierra de Gata, SE Spain. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Monatshefte. 1987:369–383.
Duggen S, Hoernle K, van den Bogaard P, Rupke D & Morgan JP (2003). Deep roots of the Messinian salinity crisis. Nature. 422:602–606.
Esteban M & Giner J (1980). Messinian coral reefs and erosion surfaces in Cabo de Gata (Almería, S.E. Spain). Acta Geologica Hispanica. 15:97–104.
Fernández-Soler JM (1996). El volcanismo calco-alcalino del Parque Natural Cabo de Gata-Níjar (Almería). Estudio volcanológico y petrológico. Monografías Medio Natural 2, Sociedad Almeriense de Historia Natural Junta de Andalucía.
Fernández-Soler JM (2001). Volcanics of the Almería Province. In: Mather AE, Martín JM, Harvey AM, Braga JC (eds) A field guide to the Neogene sedimentary basins of the Almería Province, SE Spain (pp. 58–88). Oxford: Blackwell Science.
Flügel E & Flügel-Kahler E (1992). Phanerozoic reef evolultion: Basic questions and data base. Facies. 26:167–278.
Franseen EK & Mankiewicz C (1991). Depositional sequences and correlation of middle (?) to late Miocene carbonate complexes, Las Negras and Níjar areas, southeastern Spain. Sedimentology 38:871–898.
Franseen EK, Goldstein RH & Whitesell TE (1993). Sequency stratigraphy of Miocene carbonate complexes, Las Negras area, southeastern Spain. Implications for quantification of changes in relative sea level. In Loucks RG & Sarg JF (eds), Carbonate sequence stratigraphy: recent developments and applications. AAPG Memoir. 57:409–434.
Franseen EK & Goldstein RH (1996). Paleoslope, sea-level and climate controls on Upper Miocene platform evolution, Las Negras area, southeastern Spain. In Franseen EK, Esteban M, Ward WC & Rouchy JM (eds.), Models for carbonate stratigraphy from Miocene reef complexes of Mediterranean regions. SEPM, Concepts in Sedimentology and Paleontology. 5:159–176.
Galindo-Zaldívar J, Braga JC, Marín-Lechado C, Ercilla G, Martín JM, Pedrera A, Casas D, Aguirre J, Ruiz-Constán A, Estrada F, Puga-Bernabéu A, Sanz de Galdeano C, Juan C, García-Alix A, Vázquez JT & Alonso B (2019). Extension in the Western Mediterranean. C. Quesada and J. T. Oliveira (eds.), The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach (pp. 61-100).
Harvey AM (2001). Uplift, dissection and landform evolution: the Quaternary. In Mather AE, Martín JM, Harvey AM & Braga JC (eds.), A field guide to the geology and geomorphology of the Neogene sedimentary basins of the Almería province, SE Spain (pp. 227–239), Oxford: Blackwell.
Martín JM, Braga JC & Betzler C (2003). Late Neogene–Recent uplift of the Cabo de Gata volcanic province, Almería, SE Spain. Geomorphology. 50:27–42.
Martín JM, Braga JC, Sánchez‐Almazo IM & Aguirre J (2010). Temperate and tropical carbonate‐sedimentation episodes in the Neogene Betic basins (southern Spain) linked to climatic oscillations and changes in Atlantic‐Mediterranean connections: constraints from isotopic data. International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication. 42:49–70.
Montenat C & Ott D’Estevou P (1990). Eastern Betic Neogene basins – A review. In Montenat C, Ed., Les bassins Néogènes du domaine bétique oriental (Espagne). Documents des Travaux IGAL Paris. 12-13:9–15.
Perrin C & Bosellini F (2012). Paleobiology of scleractinian reef corals: changing patterns during the Oligocene–Miocene climatic transition in the Mediterranean: Earth-Science Reviews. 111:1–24.
Pineda-Velasco A, Giner J, Zazo C & Goy JL (1981a). Carboneras. Magna 1:50000, Sheet 1046, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España.
Pineda-Velasco A, Goy JL, Zazo C & Giner J (1981b). El Pozo de los Frailes. Magna 1:50000, Sheet 1060. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España.
Riding R, Martín JM & Braga JC (1991). Coral‐stromatolite reef framework, Upper Miocene, Almería, Spain. Sedimentology. 38:799–818.
Riding R, Braga JC, Martín JM & Sánchez-Almazo I (1998). Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis: constraints from a coeval marginal basin, Sorbas, southeastern Spain. Marine Geology. 146:1–20.
Rögl F (1998). Palaeogeographic Considerations for Mediterranean and Paratethys Seaways (Oligocene to Miocene). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien. 99A: 279–310.
Villalobos M (2003). Geology of the arid zone of Almería. An educational field guide. Consejería de Medio Ambiente Junta de Andalucía, ACUSUR.
Westerhold T, Marwan N, Drury AJ, et al. (2020). An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years. Science. 369, 6509:1383–1387.
Additional Information
Geoconservation Research (Geoconserv. Res.)
Volume 4 (2021)
Issue 2, December 2021 - Paleontological Heritage and Geoconservation in the UNESCO European Geoparks (Part II) edited by Dan Grigorescu, Michael Benton, Vachik Hairapetian
Page Numbers: 650-662
Article views: 17
Share: