The Messinian Salinity Crisis Between Italy and Albania: The Peri‐Adriatic Depression and Southern Adriatic Basin Records

We reconstructed the geological evolution of the Albanides during the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC), based on the integration of outcrop and subsurface data from both onshore (peri-Adriatic depression, Albania) and offshore (Southern Adriatic Basin) settings. The lowermost MSC deposit consists of primary bottom-grown gypsum accumulated in marginal basins (Rubjek & euml;, Durres inland; Guri i Cifutit, Vlora) of the peri-Adriatic depression. Facies analysis and Sr. isotope signature allow correlating these deposits with the Primary Lower Gypsum unit (PLG). This unit is truncated on top by an erosional surface that can be correlated in deeper settings (Currilla, Durres coast; Kavaje) with a sharp surface separating evaporite-free, organic-rich, and barren shales below from a clastic evaporite unit above. The unconformity can be regarded as the Messinian Erosional Surface and the clastic evaporites as the local expression of the Resedimented Lower Gypsum (RLG). Seismic and geophysical logs allow following this unit offshore in a WNW direction for hundreds of kilometres. While in the marginal settings the PLG are overlain by marine Pliocene deposits, in the deeper settings (Currilla) the RLG unit is overlain by thick terrigenous deposits that can be subdivided into a lower finer-grained barren shale unit followed upward by a rhythmic alternation of conglomerate or sandstone bodies and shales. The uppermost portion of this unit contains a typical Paratethyan hypohaline faunal assemblage yielding a depleted Sr. signature and thus referable to the Lago-mare unit, which records the final stage of the MSC. In turn, these deposits are followed by Zanclean open-marine sediments. These findings are in good agreement with the 3-stage model of the MSC and enable the reconstruction of basin-scale correlations from the thrust-top and foredeep basins of the Albanides and the Apennines, through the Adria foreland.