The Mediterranean and Atlantic connection: Seismic Clues from the Alboran Sea

Ercilla, Gemma ... et. al.-- Regional Committee on Mediterranean Neogene Stratigraphy (RCMNS) Interim Colloquium 2015 - Mediterranean-Atlantic Gateways (Neogene to present), 5-8 May 2015, Rabat, Marocco.-- 1 page
The spatial and temporal evolution of contouritic features as well as changes in their morphology and type suggest: i) their formation roughly agrees with the present-day Mediterranean water masses distribution, i.e., the Low Dense Mediterranean Water-LMW (Winter Intermediate Water + Levantine Intermediate Water) in the Spanish margin, and the High Dense Mediterranean Water ¿DMW( Deep Mediterranean Water) in the subbsains and Moroccan margin; ii) the important role played by the changing landscape during the Pliocene and Quaternary, with important consequences for the water masses circulation, especially for the DMW. Point and linear barriers, and troughs and elongated subbasins, condition a complex current distribution, especially for the Quaternary; iii) a higher energetic recirculation of the DMW in the Western Alboran Basin; iv) a more an enhanced density contrast between the LMW and DMW during the Quaternary; and v) larger vertical and horizontal displacements of the water mass interfaces during the Quaternary related to 4th-order glacioeustatic change. These frist paleoceanographic reconstructions have implication for the ventilation of Mediterranean waters trough the Strait of Gibraltar, Mediterranean Outflow Water formation, Altantic-Mediterranean interchange and then for the AMOC and climatic changes in the past.