| The Paratethys, an ancient ocean extending from Austria to Iran, has been an essential palaeogeographic feature that significantly influenced the hydrological cycle, climate and ecosystem of the Eurasian continental interior since the Oligocene (~35 Ma). The ocean gradually transformed into an inland sea and finally into a giant lake as a consequence of ongoing continental collision that shaped the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt. Close to the final stages of its existence, during Miocene-Pliocene times, the Paratethys played a major role in the Mediterranean water budget. At the end of the Messinian (5.96-5.33 Ma), the Mediterranean experienced one of the most dramatic episodes of past oceanic change: the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Kilometres thick salt units were deposited in a deep-desiccated Mediterranean basin, semi-isolated from the open ocean. Timing and nature of water exchange between Paratethys and Mediterranean is a vital, but poorly understood and highly controversial component of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. One scenario assumes that the Paratethys spilled into the Mediterranean just before the Pliocene flooding while another argues for a major sea (lake) level drop. Here, I propose to reconstruct the hydrological budget of the Paratethys during this critical time interval. To this end, I will use a novel multi-proxy approach on well-dated sedimentary successions to assess the environmental changes in the Paratethys and their effects on regional climate and hydrography. Organic and inorganic geochemical proxies will be combined to reconstruct salinity and temperature profiles, and to determine the hydrological flux between the restricted Paratethys and the Mediterranean. This will provide insight into the influence of large inland water bodies on local climate as well as constraints on coupled palaeocirculation and palaeoclimatic models and quantitative analyses of palaeosalinity changes during the Messinian. |
