Zanclean Explained

Zanclean
Color:	Zanclean
Time Start:	5.333
Time End:	3.600
Timeline:	Neogene
Formerly Part Of:	Tertiary Period/System
Name Formality:	Formal
Celestial Body:	earth
Usage:	Global (ICS)
Timescales Used:	ICS Time Scale
Chrono Unit:	Age
Strat Unit:	Stage
Timespan Formality:	Formal
Lower Boundary Def:	Base of the Thvera magnetic event (C3n.4n), which is only 96 ka (5 precession cycles) younger than the GSSP
Lower Gssp Location:	Heraclea Minoa section, Heraclea Minoa, Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy
Lower Gssp Accept Date:	2000^[1]
Upper Boundary Def:	Base of Gauss/Gilbert (C2An/C2Ar) magnetic reversal
Upper Gssp Location:	Punta Piccola Section, Porto Empedocle, Sicily, Italy
Upper Gssp Accept Date:	January 1997^[2]

The Zanclean is the lowest stage or earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago) and 3.6 ± 0.005 Ma. It is preceded by the Messinian Age of the Miocene Epoch, and followed by the Piacenzian Age.

The Zanclean can be correlated with regionally used stages, such as the Opoitian of New Zealand,^[3] and the Tabianian or Dacian of Central Europe. It also corresponds to the late Hemphillian to mid-Blancan North American Land Mammal Ages. In California, the Zanclean roughly corresponds to the middle part of the Delmontian stage.^[4]

Definition

The Zanclean Stage was introduced by Giuseppe Seguenza in 1868. It is named after Zancle, the pre-Roman name for the Italian city of Messina on Sicily.

The base of the Zanclean (and the Pliocene Series) lies with the top of magnetic chronozone Cr3 (about 100,000 years before the Thvera normal subchronozone C3n.4n). The base is also close to the extinction level of the calcareous nanoplankton species Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus (the base of biozone CN10b) and the first appearance of nanoplankton Ceratolithus acutus. The GSSP for the Zanclean is in the vicinity of the ruins of the ancient city of Heraclea Minoa on Sicily, Italy.^[1]

The top of the Zanclean Stage (the base of the Piacenzian Stage) is at the base of magnetic chronozone C2An (the base of the Gauss chronozone and at the extinction of the planktonic forams Globorotalia margaritae and Pulleniatina primalis.

Events of the Zanclean

The Zanclean flood marked the beginning of the age and the end of the Messinian, as water poured in from the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar to deluge the Mediterranean Basin and end the Messinian salinity crisis, a period about 5.96 Ma ago in the Messinian Age of the Miocene Epoch when the Mediterranean Sea had evaporated partly or completely.^[5]
Deposits in the Everglades were deposited when high tropical water started to return in the late Zanclean.^[6]

References

Literature

1998: The Global Standard Stratotype section and Point (GSSP) of the Piacenzian Stage (Middle Pliocene), Episodes, 21(2): pp 88–93.

(eds.) (2005) A Geologic Time Scale 2004 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, .

1868: La Formation Zancléenne, ou recherches sur une nouvelle formation tertiaire, Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, séries 2, 25: 465-485.

2000: The base of the Zanclean Stage and of the Pliocene Series, Episodes, 23(3): pp 179–187.

External links

- Neogene timescale, at the website of the subcommission for stratigraphic information of the ICS
Neogene timescale at the website of the Norwegian network of offshore records of geology and stratigraphy

37.3917°N 13.2806°W

Notes and References

Van Couvering . John . Castradori . Davide . Cita . Maria . Hilgen . Frederik . Rio . Domenico . The base of the Zanclean Stage and of the Pliocene Series . Episodes . September 2000 . 23 . 3 . 179–187 . 10.18814/epiiugs/2000/v23i3/005 . 10836910 .
Castradori . D. . D. Rio . F. J. Hilgen . L. J. Lourens . The Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point (GSSP) of the Piacenzian Stage (Middle Pliocene) . Episodes . 1998 . 21 . 2 . 88–93 . 26 December 2020 . 10.18814/epiiugs/1998/v21i2/003 . free .
Book: The Geologic Timescale 2012 . Elsevier . Gradstein FM, Ogg JG, Schmitz MD, Ogg GM . 2012 . 936–937 . 978-0-44-459390-0.
Web site: Delmontian . Allaby, Ailsa . Michael Allaby. 1999. A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. Encyclopedia.com. . 10 Dec 2009. A stage in the Upper Tertiary of the west coast of N. America.
Marco Roveri . Adele Bertini . DomenicoCosentino . Agata Di Stefano . Rocco Gennari . Elsa Gliozzi . Francesco Grossi . Silvia Maria Iaccarino . Stefano Lugli . Vinicio Manzi . Marco Tavian . 2008 . A high-resolution stratigraphic framework for the latest Messinian events in the Mediterranean area . Stratigraphy . 5 . 3–4 . 323–342, text-figures 1–9 . December 10, 2009 . dead . January 21, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120121052846/http://160.78.38.2/VM_file/PDF/Roveri_2008_Stratigraphy.pdf.
Book: The Geology of the Everglades and Adjacent Areas . 9781420045598 . Petuch . Edward J. . Roberts . Charles . 18 April 2007 .