Zanclean age
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| Zanclean age | |
|---|---|
| Name | Zanclean |
| Epoch start | 5.333 |
| Epoch end | 3.6 |
| Time unit | Age |
| Former name | Early Pliocene |
| Named by | Giovanni Capellini |
| Type section | Piobbico, Italy |
| Stratotype location | Piobbico, Marche |
| Color | #C0DEFF |
Zanclean age The Zanclean age is the earliest age of the Pliocene Epoch in the Neogene Period, spanning from about 5.333 to 3.6 million years ago. It succeeds the Messinian and precedes the Piacenzian and is defined by global chronostratigraphic markers recognized in Mediterranean and global sections. The Zanclean interval records major reorganizations in oceanography, climate, and biota tied to tectonic and eustatic changes.
Definition and temporal boundaries
The Zanclean was formally ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and is bounded below by the end of the Messinian salinity crisis and a primary magnetostratigraphic reversal correlated with the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale used by the International Union of Geological Sciences. The base is tied to the first occurrence of Mediterranean marine sediments above the evaporite assemblages associated with the Gibraltar Strait reflooding event and is correlated to the global Chron C3n.4n onset used in studies by teams from University of Bologna, École Normale Supérieure, and the United States Geological Survey. The upper boundary is defined by biostratigraphic changes in marine microfossils and correlation to magnetochrons that link to studies at Florida International University, University of Cambridge, and the Smithsonian Institution.
Stratigraphy and type locality
The type locality for the Zanclean is near Piobbico in the Marche region of Italy, where Giovanni Capellini and subsequent stratigraphers described the basal transgressive marine sands and marls. The Piobbico stratotype contains planktonic foraminifera and nannofossil assemblages comparable to reference sections at Sicily, Malta, and the Alboran Sea, and has been indexed alongside work at the Mediterranean Sea deep-sea cores recovered by programs such as the Ocean Drilling Program and later the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Lithostratigraphic units correlated with the type section include marls, bioclastic limestones, and transgressive sandstones studied by researchers at Università di Padova and the Geological Survey of Italy.
Paleogeography and climate
During the Zanclean the Mediterranean Basin underwent dramatic changes after reconnection through the Strait of Gibraltar, with rapid flooding that reestablished marine circulation between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Global paleogeography shows reorganized coastal plains along margins such as the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, and Sunda Shelf, as reconstructed by teams at Stanford University, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. Climate during the Zanclean trended warmer than later Pliocene intervals with evidence for high-latitude warmth from proxies studied at University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Oxford, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; interbedded isotopic records and palynology from cores in the Equatorial Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and Mediterranean indicate regional variability and the establishment of modern-like circulation patterns.
Biotic evolution and key fossils
Biotic turnovers in the Zanclean include recolonization of marine fauna in the Mediterranean with key fossils such as planktonic foraminifera, benthic foraminifera, and calcareous nannoplankton documented by researchers from Natural History Museum, London, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, and National Museum of Natural History, Washington. Terrestrial mammal faunas in Europe and Africa show important migrations and first appearances recorded at sites studied by teams from University of Florence, University of Barcelona, and the Turin Natural History Museum, linking to dispersal events across the Gibraltar and Sicilian gateways. Marine vertebrate assemblages including early representatives of modern cetaceans are known from deposits examined by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Key fossil taxa used in biostratigraphy include species of Globigerinoides, Neogloboquadrina, and Emiliania huxleyi-type nannofossils documented in collections at the Smithsonian Institution and the Natural History Museum, Paris.
Major geologic events
The defining geologic event of the Zanclean is the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean after the evaporite deposition of the Messinian salinity crisis, a process tied to tectonic and sea-level forcing studied by investigators at Caltech, ETH Zurich, and the University of Barcelona. Other events include continued uplift in the Apennines, renewed volcanism in the Sicilian and Tyrrhenian regions, and sedimentary reworking along margins such as the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea recorded by seismic profiles from the European Marine Observation and Data Network. Global sea-level changes influenced continental shelf exposure in regions like the North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea addressed in work by the National Oceanography Centre and University of Miami.
Regional correlations and lithostratigraphy
Zanclean deposits are correlated across the Mediterranean, Atlantic margins, and Indo-Pacific shelves using magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and sequence stratigraphy by groups at University of Barcelona, University of Lisbon, and the Institut de Ciències del Mar. In North America, equivalent deposits appear in the Californian and Gulf Coast successions examined by the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Texas at Austin. African correlations include marine transgressive sequences along the North African margin and terrestrial sequences in East Africa tied to hominid-bearing strata studied by teams from the Leakey Foundation, National Museum of Kenya, and University of Nairobi.
Economic significance and research history
Zanclean strata host hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in Mediterranean and offshore basins explored by companies such as Eni, BP, and Shell and investigated by national agencies including the Instituto Portugués do Mar e da Atmosfera and the Greek Petroleum Company. Evaporite and replacement carbonate sequences influence reservoir quality and are targets in energy studies by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and academic partners at Imperial College London. Research history spans 19th-century work by Giovanni Capellini through modern multidisciplinary programs including the Ocean Drilling Program, isotopic studies at Columbia University, and modeling efforts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.