| Summary: | The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) was a marked late Neogene oceanographic event duringwhich the Mediterranean Sea evaporated. Its causes remain unresolved, with tectonicrestrictions to the Atlantic Ocean or glacio-eustatic restriction of flow during sea-levellowstands, or a mixture of the two mechanisms, being proposed. Here we present the firstdirect geological evidence of Antarctic ice-sheet (AIS) expansion at the MSC onset and use ad18O record to model relative sea-level changes. Antarctic sedimentary successions indicateAIS expansion at 6Ma coincident with major MSC desiccation; relative sea-level modellingindicates a prolonged B50m lowstand at the Strait of Gibraltar, which resulted from AISexpansion and local evaporation of sea water in concert with evaporite precipitation thatcaused lithospheric deformation. Our results reconcile MSC events and demonstrate thatdesiccation and refilling were timed by the interplay between glacio-eustatic sea-levelvariations, glacial isostatic adjustment and mantle deformation in response to changing waterand evaporite loads.DOI:10.1038/ncomms9765 OPEN1
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