@article{SchildgenCosentinoFrijiaetal.2014,
  author    = {Schildgen, Taylor F. and Cosentino, D. and Frijia, Gianluca and Castorina, F. and Dudas, F. Oe. and Iadanza, A. and Sampalmieri, G. and Cipollari, Paola and Caruso, A. and Bowring, S. A. and Strecker, Manfred},
  title     = {Sea level and climate forcing of the Sr isotope composition of late Miocene Mediterranean marine basins},
  series = {Geochemistry, geophysics, geosystems},
  volume    = {15},
  journal   = {Geochemistry, geophysics, geosystems},
  number    = {7},
  publisher = {American Geophysical Union},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {1525-2027},
  doi       = {10.1002/2014GC005332},
  pages     = {2964 -- 2983},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Sr isotope records from marginal marine basins track the mixing between seawater and local continental runoff, potentially recording the effects of sea level, tectonic, and climate forcing in marine fossils and sediments. Our 110 new Sr-87/Sr-86 analyses on oyster and foraminifera samples from six late Miocene stratigraphic sections in southern Turkey, Crete, and Sicily show that Sr-87/Sr-86 fell below global seawater values in the basins several million years before the Messinian Salinity Crisis, coinciding with tectonic uplift and basin shallowing. 87Sr/86Sr from more centrally located basins (away from the Mediterranean coast) drop below global seawater values only during the Messinian Salinity Crisis. In addition to this general trend, 55 new Sr-87/Sr-86 analyses from the astronomically tuned Lower Evaporites in the central Apennines (Italy) allow us to explore the effect of glacio-eustatic sea level and precipitation changes on Sr-87/Sr-86. Most variation in our data can be explained by changes in sea level, with greatest negative excursions from global seawater values occurring during relative sea level lowstands, which generally coincided with arid conditions in the Mediterranean realm. We suggest that this greater sensitivity to lowered sea level compared with higher runoff could relate to the inverse relationship between Sr concentration and river discharge. Variations in the residence time of groundwater within the karst terrain of the circum-Mediterranean region during arid and wet phases may help to explain the single (robust) occurrence of a negative excursion during a sea level highstand, but this explanation remains speculative without more detailed paleoclimatic data for the region.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{CosentinoBuchwaldtSampalmierietal.2013,
  author    = {Cosentino, Domenico and Buchwaldt, Robert and Sampalmieri, Gianluca and Iadanza, Annalisa and Cipollari, Paola and Schildgen, Taylor F. and Hinnov, Linda A. and Ramezani, Jahandar and Bowring, Samuel A.},
  title     = {Refining the mediterranean "Messinian gap" with high-precision U-Pb zircon geochronology, central and northern Italy},
  series = {Geology},
  volume    = {41},
  journal   = {Geology},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Boulder},
  issn      = {0091-7613},
  doi       = {10.1130/G33820.1},
  pages     = {323 -- 326},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Astronomically tuned cyclic sedimentary successions provide unprecedented insight into the temporal evolution of depositional systems and major geologic events. However, placing astronomically calibrated records into an absolute time frame with confidence requires independent and precise geochronologic constraints. Astronomical tuning of the precessionally modulated sedimentary cycles of the Mediterranean Basin deposited during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.96-5.33 Ma) has indicated an similar to 90 k.y. "Messinian gap", corresponding to the evaporative drawdown of the Mediterranean following the closure of the Mediterranean-Atlantic gateway. In the Messinian deposits, a volcanic ash dated by Ar-40/Ar-39 geochronology was used to anchor the sedimentary cycles to the insolation curve. However, the uncertainty of the Ar-40/Ar-39 date introduces a potential two-cycle (similar to 40 k.y.) uncertainty in the tuning. Using high-precision chemical abrasion-thermal ionization mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) U-Pb geochronology on single zircon grains from two Messinian ash layers in Italy, we obtained dates of 5.5320 +/- 0.0046 Ma and 5.5320 +/- 0.0074 Ma with sub-precessional resolution. Combined with our astronomical tuning of the Messinian Lower Evaporites, the results refine the duration of the "Messinian gap" to at most 28 or 58 +/- 9.6 k.y., which correlates with either the TG12 glacial interval alone, or both TG12 and TG14 glacial intervals, supporting the hypothesis of a glacio-eustatic contribution in fully isolating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. Our new U-Pb dates also allow us to infer a precessionally modulated cyclicity for the post-evaporitic deposits, and hence enable us to tune those successions to the insolation curve.},
  language  = {en}
}