Revision of the Messinian-Early Zanclean Sediments from ODP Hole 953C (Canary Island Archipelago, North-Eastern Atlantic): Biostratigraphy, Cyclostratigraphy, and Astronomical Tuning

A quantitative study was performed on calcareous plankton of the Messinian-early Zanclean succession recovered at ODP Leg 157 Hole 953C (Canary Island Archipelago, North-Eastern Atlantic). This revision allowed to recognize some events typically recorded in the Mediterranean region, highlighting affinities between the Mediterranean and North Atlantic Ocean, in the considered time interval. The presence of such events in an open-ocean succession provides the possibility to substantially improve the biostratigraphic resolution and supplies useful correlation tools between the Mediterranean and oceanic areas. Moreover, to unravel cyclical patterns of deposition and given that the investigated succession shows no evident lithological pattern, cyclostratigraphic analyses have been based on abundance fluctuations of Globigerinoides-Orbulina group, neogloboquadrinids, and warm-water versus cool-water species ratio. As a result, forty-three precession-controlled cycles have been recognized spanning from 6.457 Ma to 4.799 Ma.