Miocene Atlantic-Mediterranean seaways in the Betic Cordillera (southern Spain)

Resumen

The link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean through the Betic Cordillera (southern Spain) was reduced to a few seaways in the Miocene as the mountain belt uplifted during the Alpine orogeny. The North-Betic Strait, located in the Prebetic Zone, was the first one to close in the Early Late Miocene. During the Tortonian, there were connections through the Granada-Guadalquivir basins (Zagra Strait) and the Guadix-Guadalquivir basins (Dehesas de Guadix Strait). Only one corridor, the Guadalhorce Strait, existed in the early Messinian through the Guadalquivir and Málaga basins. The closing of the youngest straits (Dehesas de Guadix and Guadalhorce Straits) brought about profound paleoceanographic changes, leading to an increase of Mediterranean restriction and watermass stratification. All these straits were several kilometers wide, and a few tens to c. 100 m deep. The strait deposits (up to 400 m thick) consist of siliciclastics and siliciclastics-carbonates. Giant dunes (up to 30 m high and 800 m long), exhibiting internal giant cross-bedding, are characteristic features of these ancient seaways. In the North-Betic and Zagra straits the dunes were moved by tides and in the Dehesas de Guadix and Guadalhorce straits by bottom density currents flowing from the Mediterranean towards the Atlantic.