La crise de la salinité messinienne dans le Golfe du Lion : de la marge érodée au bassin évaporitique

The Messinian erosional surface that can be observed on the Mediterranean margins is a good marker of the relative lowering of the sea level which happened during the Messinian salinity crisis. The estimate of the volume of Miocene sediments on the Gulf of Lion platform gives a minimum eroded volume of 5 300 Km . The eroded layer reaches one kilometre in numerous places (Figures 2 and 3). This volume demonstrates the erosion of the continental shelf in the Gulf of Lion and does not include the eroded volumes in the Rhone valley, the surroundings of the Gulf of Lion and on the slope. Thus, this minimum eroded volume is logically transferred towards the basin.