Hydrological Origin of the last sapropel in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
by
Abir Ben Amar and Latifa Essallami
Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Tunisia
Coauthors: Nejib KALLEL (FSS. Sfax, Tunisia), Jean-Claude DUPLESSY, Laurent LABEYRIE, Michel FONTUGNE (LSCE, Gif/Yvette, France)

Quaternary sediments of the eastern Mediterranean Sea show organic-rich layers (sapropels), which are black sediments containing abundant planktonic foraminifera, but are devoid of benthic fossils (Williams et al., 1978). The last sapropel (S1) apparition was found to be determined by a spectacular change in the hydrodynamic equilibrium over both the Sicilian-Tunisian and Gibraltar Straits. At that time, the whole Mediterranean received a sufficient amount of freshwater to prevent any surface salinity increase within the sea, which stopped to be a concentration basin. To better understand the relationship between Holocene Mediterranean wet period and the last sapropel formation, we analysed two Mediterranean Sea cores presenting high sedimentation rate : Core KET80-37 from the Sicilian-Tunisian Strait and core MD84-632 from the Levantine basin. We consider two palaeoclimate signals in the sediment records. Oxygen isotope measurements (delta¹⁸O) were made on the planktonic foraminifera and SST estimates were derived from foraminiferal fauna changes.

Date received: April 29, 2001

Copyright © 2001 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cahi-48.