Le seisme de Lambesc de 1909 est une illustration du risque sismique auquel la Provence est exposee. L'approche de la tectonique active et de la paleosismologie appliquee aux failles de la Moyenne Durance et de la Trevaresse, complementaire de la sismologie instrumentale, montre que ces accidents ont des taux de deplacement d'environ 0,1 mm/an. La premiere, qui constitue la bordure orientale du bassin du Sud-Est, est active depuis le Paleozoique. Son activite actuelle est limitee a l'epaisse couverture sedimentaire qui parait decouplee mecaniquement du socle. Les deformations plio-quaternaires le long de cet accident indiquent un mouvement decrochant senestre a composante inverse. Cette activite peut s'expliquer, partiellement, par une poussee alpine vers le sud combinee a « l'effondrement » gravitaire de la chaine. La faille de la Moyenne Durance comprend plusieurs segments. L'un de ces segments parait etre en connexion avec la faille de la Trevaresse. Celle-ci, tres probablement responsable du seisme de 1909, a forme l'anticlinal de rampe de la Trevaresse. La question des effets de site est illustree par les caracteristiques lithologiques et topographiques dans le secteur de Vernegues. On envisage egalement le role du remplissage sedimentaire des canyons messiniens dans l'apparition de degâts a la surface du sol. Mots-cles : Failles actives, deformations recentes, couverture provencale, seisme de Lambesc, canyons messiniens, effets de site. Abstract: 1

The Roussillon Basin is a non-silled Miocene sedimentary basin filling a late Oligocene-early Miocene graben. The basin was intensively impacted by the Messinian fluvial erosion, as evidenced in exposed sections, in seismic profiles and in deep boreholes drilled for hydrocarbon exploration. As the basin was open to the Mediterranean Sea, the huge drop in sea level at the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis is clearly recorded, along with the subsequent sudden marine reflooding and the resulting prograding sedimentary filling, particularly in Gilbert-type fan deltas. Here, the Messinian Erosional Surface (MES) is accurately mapped in a high-resolution document, which corrects the confusion resulting from the set of 1:50,000 scale regional maps. Aim of the 3D reconstruction of the MES is to modernize geological mapping, a crucial challenge for Mediterranean and peripheral areas. Thanks to a reliable chronostratigraphy provided by planktonic foraminifers, calcareous nannofossils, micro- and macro-mammal remains, paleomagnetism and a Be-10 cosmogenic nuclide-derived study, our reconstruction is one of the most comprehensive models of changes in sea level from 6 to 3 Ma. After the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin at 5.46 Ma, the fluctuations in sea level recorded in the Roussillon Basin were forced by global changes. Following reflooding, the Prades large olistostrome collapsed prepared by the previous exhumation along the Canigou fault. The olistostrome is a good example of a local accident resulting from Messinian events. The exceptional changes in sea level at the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis deeply marked the Roussillon Basin, momentarily overprinting the Pyrenean orogenesis. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Since the discovery of calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellate cysts and planktonic foraminifers in deposits from the Dacic Basin, intensive research has been performed in order to evidence which gateway this microplankton used to connect Paratethys and the Mediterranean prior and after the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Such a gateway is also to be regarded at the origin of successive influxes of Paratethyan organisms (molluscs, ostracods, dinoflagellates) into the Mediterranean Basin (“Lago Mare” events). Observing that the İstanbul area, usually proposed for this purpose, was inefficient, we examine the succession of marine well-dated pre-MSC and post-MSC deltaic deposits through the Balkans, from northern Greece to southern Romania, that constitutes a reliable candidate for such a marine corridor, the origin of which was caused by the regional tectonic extension. The reconstructed palaeogeography for high sea level episodes that encompassed the MSC clarifies the context of the so-called North Aegean Lake. This marine gateway probably evolved as a powerful river during the peak of the MSC, contributing to the deposition of clastics in the hydrocarbon Prinos Field. A tectonically controlled subsidence to the north and south of the Skopje region caused the closure of such a gateway.

The Messinian Salinity Crisis resulted from desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea after its isolation from the Atlantic Ocean at the end of the Miocene. Stratal geometry tied to borehole data in the Gulf of Lions show that the pre-crisis continental shelf has been eroded during a major sea-level fall and that sediments from this erosion have been deposited in the basin. This detrital package is onlapped by high amplitude seismic reflectors overlain by the "Messinian Salt" and the "Upper Evaporites". Towards the shelf, the transition between regressive deposits and overlying onlapping sediments is characterised by a wave-ravinement surface, suggesting that a significant part of the onlapping reflectors and overlying Messinian Evaporites were deposited during a relatively slow landward migration of the shoreline. The clear boundary between the smooth wave-ravinement surface and the subaerial Messinian Erosional Surface observed on the Gulf of Lions shelf and onshore in the Rhone valley is interpreted to have resulted from a rapid acceleration of the Mediterranean sea level rise at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Numerical simulation of this cycle of sea level change during the Messinian Salinity Crisis and of precipitation of thick evaporites during the slow sea level rise shows that this scenario can be modelled assuming a value of evaporation minus precipitation of 1.75 m(3)/m(2)/yr in the deep Mediterranean basins. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The two sides of the Strandja Sill show a highly discontinuous stratigraphic succession since the Late Oligocene. This area, together with the Sea of Marmara Basin, is usually proposed as the gateway for the Paratethyan freshwaters and organisms that constituted the Lago Mare facies in the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). Our investigations involving new field observations and datings, together with previous studies, suggest that the sill has possibly experienced such a connection at around 8Ma, i.e. significantly before the crisis. The proposal of a sea-level drop of the Black Sea before 7Ma is not supported by our data on dinoflagellate cysts. Consistency of calcareous nannofossil succession at DSDP Site 380 is reinforced, allowing to reassert that subaerial erosion impacted both the southwestern Black Sea and the central Marmara – Dardanelles area during the peak of the MSC. At that time, this region was crossed by two oppositely directed fluvial networks, further supporting the absence of a marine gateway through the Strandja Sill. It is concluded that none of the Lago Mare events recorded in the Mediterranean during the MSC were the consequence of the passage of Paratethyan waters and organisms through this area. In the Black Sea, the well-dated Messinian fluvial erosion can be followed offshore. The overlying prograding deltaic deposits attest to a fast marine reflooding after the crisis. This constitutes a comprehensive erosion – sedimentation model in an area intensively explored for hydrocarbons.

The Sorbas Basin is the land reference of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) that affected the Mediterranean Sea in the latest Miocene. Its stratigraphy has been re-visited using calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifers, which provide a reliable biostratigraphic frame and lead to particularly specify the relationships between the Sorbas and Zorreras members with Yesares evaporites.The evaporites overlie a shallowing upward sequence ending with the deposition of the Reef Unit and Terminal Carbonate Complex (TCC) on the periphery of the basin. The reefal carbonates of the TCC are overlain by clastic deposits that are foreset beds of post-MSC Gilbert-type fan deltas developed on the northern edge of the basin. These sedimentary structures are separated from reefal carbonates and the Reef Unit by the Messinian Erosional Surface (MES). The various facies of the Sorbas Member have been correlated with the bottomset beds of the Gilbert-type fan deltas despite some differences in palae-obathymetry. In the southeastern periphery of the basin, the MES separates the Sorbas Member from the Yesares gypsums. In the central part of the basin, a hiatus characterizes the contact between these members. The Zorreras Member postdates the MSC and entirely belongs to Zanclean. Its white "Lago Mare" layers are lagoonal deposits, the fauna of which is confirmed to result from Mediterranean-Paratethys high sea-level exchange after the post-MSC marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin.This study allows to re-assert the two-step scenario of the MSC (Clauzon et al., 1996) with the following events:- at 5.971-5.600 Ma, minor sea-level fall resulting in the desiccation of this peripheral basin with secondary fluctuations;- at 5.600-5.460 Ma, significant subaerial erosion (or lack of sedimentation) caused by the almost complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea;- instantaneous marine refiooding, accepted at 5.460 Ma, followed by continuing sea-level rise. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Located in the foreland of the Western Alps, the Crau Plain was the outlet of the Durance River in the Pleistocene. In order to constrain its geodynamic evolution in terms of chronology and denudation rates, the two main Quaternary deposits of this plain have been studied based on cosmogenic nuclide 10Be concentration measurements along depth profiles. The abandonment of the Miramas and Luquier alluvial surfaces occurred at the beginning of glacial periods, Würm (isotopic stage 4) and Riss (isotopic stage 6), respectively. Discrepancy in denudation rates under similar geomorphological and lithological conditions suggests different denudation processes during glacial and interglacial periods. The denudation rate has been estimated at about 25mmka−1 for the interglacial period and about 60mmka−1 for the glacial period. The abandonment of the Crau Plain as the outlet of the Durance River occurred sometime between 75 and 35ka.

The M essinian S alinity C risis is well known to have resulted from a significant drop of the M editerranean sea level. Considering both onshore and offshore observations, the subsequent reflooding is generally thought to have been very sudden. We present here offshore seismic evidence from the G ulf of L ions and re‐visited onshore data from I taly and T urkey that lead to a new concept of a two‐step reflooding of the M editerranean B asin after the M essinian S alinity C risis. The refilling was first moderate and relatively slow accompanied by transgressive ravinement, and later on very rapid, preserving the subaerial M essinian E rosional S urface. The amplitude of these two successive rises of sea level has been estimated at ≤500 m for the first rise and 600–900 m for the second rise. Evaporites from the central M editerranean basins appear to have been deposited principally at the beginning of the first step of reflooding. After the second step, which preceeded the Z anclean G lobal S tratotype S ection and P oint, successive connections with the P aratethyan D acic B asin, then the A driatic foredeep, and finally the E uxinian B asin occurred, as a consequence of the continued global rise in sea level. A complex morphology with sills and sub‐basins led to diachronous events such as the so‐called ‘ L ago M are’.This study helps to distinguish events that were synchronous over the entire M editerranean realm, such as the two‐step reflooding, from those that were more local and diachronous. In addition, the shoreline that marks the transition between these two steps of reflooding in the P rovence B asin provides a remarkable palaeogeographical marker for subsidence studies.

The Messinian Salinity Crisis is well known to have resulted from a significant drop of the Mediterranean sea level. Considering both onshore and offshore observations, the subsequent reflooding is generally thought to have been very sudden. We present here offshore seismic evidence from the Gulf of Lions and re-visited onshore data from Italy and Turkey that lead to a new concept of a twostep reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The refilling was first moderate and relatively slow accompanied by transgressive ravinement, and later on very rapid, preserving the subaerial Messinian Erosional Surface. The amplitude of these two successive rises of sea level has been estimated at 500 m for the first rise and 600–900 m for the second rise. Evaporites from the central Mediterranean basins appear to have been deposited principally at the beginning of the first step of reflooding. After the second step, which preceeded the Zanclean Global Stratotype Section and Point, successive connections with the Paratethyan Dacic Basin, then the Adriatic Correspondence: F. Bache, GNS Science, P.O. BOX 30368, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand. E-mail: f.bache@gns.cri.nz © 2011 The Authors Basin Research © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists 125 Basin Research (2012) 24, 125–153, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2117.2011.00521.x EAGE

Mapping thick conglomerates in the subalpine chains around Digne allows reconstruction of a deeply incised Messinian-Pliocene paleo-drainage network. It shows that the main rivers (Bleone, Bes, Mardaric, Eaux-Chaudes) have existed since at least the Messinian. Pollen analysis reveals that the Pliocene-Early Quaternary continental infill of these canyons did not start at 5.3 Ma, like in the Zanclean rias, but in the Late Pliocene (between 3.4 and 2.6 Ma). This 2 my. delay results in part from the timing of the retrogradation of the alluvial wedge, and in part from the inland shift of the river mouths that accompanied the Zanclean flooding of Messinian canyons. This shift corresponds to a shortening of hundreds of kilometers of the river profiles that caused the river to gain more erosive energy. This strong Zanclean erosion is contemporaneous with the main infill of the rias downstream.We describe sections of paleo-canyons that were uplifted, tilted, overthrusted or truncated by strike-slip faults. The geometry of this dissected drainage network provides new constraints on the tectonic evolution of the southern sub-Alpine chains. An about 2.3 km strike-slip separation of the Bleone river paleo-canyon confirms that the front of the Digne nappe is an oblique ramp of the south-verging thrust system of the 'Arc de Castellane'. This nappe moved south-southwestward along the N015 trending tear fault. Fault striation analysis in the Late Pliocene-Quaternary conglomerates shows that this displacement was characterized by ENE-WSW compression, along the Digne oblique ramp, consistent with its dextral slip. Most of the Digne nappe displacement (similar to 20 km) occurred prior to the Late Pliocene as shown by the La Bonnette section of the Bleone paleo-canyon that incises a block of the overthrusted "residual basin" It was followed by similar to 2.3 km southward displacement along out-of-sequence faults during the Late Pliocene and the Quaternary. This out-of-sequence reactivation of the Digne nappe is contemporaneous with the formation of the Barles half-window nappe anticline as shown by the 345 m uplift of the l'Escuichiere paleo-canyon. The reconstructed paleo-drainage network attests for the tectonic activity of the Barles nappe anticline, the Bes tear fault, the Saint Benoit tear faults and the Digne nappe during the Pliocene and the Quaternary.

In northern Provence, a major tectonic phase occurred between 10 and 6 Ma prior to the Messinian salinity crisis. It is expressed by reverse faulting reactivation of the Luberon ramp-anticline that developed initially during the Pyrenean orogeny, with most of the deformation taking place during the Eocene. This Miocene phase led to a concomitant rejuvenation of the relief, along with the development of a "Jurassian" structural morphology and drainage pattern. Its most spectacular expression is the deeply incised transverse valleys that provide evidence of powerful downcutting.The earliest occurrence of the Valensole gravels, dated to similar to 11 Ma, is found in the Cucuron basin in the foreland of the Luberon. The uplift of the Luberon anticline and its foreland resulted from southward propagation of thrusting, whilst the phases of high eustatic sea-level that precede and follow the ending of the Messinian salinity crisis caused an accretion of the piedmont. The Luberon Alpine structural development occurred before the Messinian salinity crisis, and took place within two distinct tectonic episodes during the Miocene: the first episode, in the Early Miocene (Langhian), mainly affected the Petit Luberon, while the second more recent episode, during the Tortoman, lead to deformation in the Grand Luberon before 5.9 Ma. These tectonic events and their large-scale morphological impacts - notably the creation of the present-day relief - indicate that the Tortoman phase was the most important of the Miocene episodes as it controlled the Alpine structural development of the Luberon and its foreland as well as the associated ranges to the south. After the Miocene, whereas the Alpine phase did not modify the morphology, deformation migrated southwards from the Luberon. Some of the faults are still active, as shown by the 1909 Lambesc earthquake (11 June 1909; 6 Mw), which triggered the reactivation of the Trevaresse fault.

New field observations and fossil analyses complete and clarify the strong impact of the Mediterranean sea-level changes linked to the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis on the Dacic Basin in southwestern Romania. In addition to the Gilbert-type fan delta already evidenced along the Danube River in the area of Turnu Severin, a new Gilbert-type fan delta is described northward. Early Zanclean bottomset beds are evidenced and dated based on nannofossils at the junction of the two coalescing Gilbert-type fan deltas. A clear sedimentological, morphological and chronologic differentiation is established in the area between the Carpathians Late Miocene piedmont alluvial fans and the early Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas. The early Zanclean age of the Hinova clays, where the bottomset beds of the Gilbert-type fan deltas are mostly developed, is confirmed by the occurrence of nannofossil markers of Subzone NN12b and a Bosphorian mollusk macrofauna. Early Zanclean inflow of Mediterranean marine waters into the Dacic Basin is also supported by the record of planktonic foraminifers. In the Dacic Basin, the Messinian Salinity Crisis resulted in the cutting of the Iron Gates by a Carpathians river. Fluvial erosion also affected the residual Pannonian Basin and probably catched the paleo-Tisza River which contributed to the erosion of the Iron Gates and to the fluvial drainage of the partly desiccated Dacic Basin. Arguments are reinforced in favor of a marine gateway between the Mediterranean and Dacic Basin through the Balkans before and after the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

The Crotone series is undoubtedly the best-studied Early Pleistocene succession in the world. Its matchless location and sedimentary conditions contribute to optimal achievements in biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy, and finally chronology. Robust stratigraphic correlations are established between the Semaforo and Vrica areas thanks to field surveys, a cored borehole, and ash mineralogy and geochemistry. The Crotone series covers the time-interval from 2.47 to 1.21 Ma and displays 30 complete glacial-interglacial cycles, from MIS 97 to MIS 37.Insolation cycles are recorded from i-236 to i-116 by combining lithology (sapropels) and palynology (amorphous organic matter and abundance in pollen grains of riparian trees, two indices of anoxic condition development and runoff intensity, respectively). The understanding of Early Pleistocene glacial-interglacial pollen records is clarified as the response of vegetation to the strong interaction between precession and obliquity has been analysed along several successive climatic cycles. Modern pollen records from the Rhone mouth shed light on the conditions of deposition of the sapropels, contributing to specify their intensity and duration. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

The biostratigraphically calibrated long pollen record at DSDP Site 380 (southwestern Black Sea) displays a high-resolution continuous and contrasted evolution of the vegetation in the region for the entire Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene. An accurate correlation is established with the reference global oxygen isotopic curve and with the Northwestern European climatostratigraphy. Climatostratigraphic relationships are evident at the latitudinal and longitudinal scale of Europe, confirming the extensive strength of pollen analysis as a tool for correlations over large distances.

An intense controversy on chronostratigraphy of upper Miocene–lower Pliocene deposits and the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles area led to a systematic investigation of calcareous nannoplankton content of 10 key-sections representative of the most relevant regional Kirazlı and Alçıtepe formations. Our study shows clearly that the Kirazlı Formation deposits predate the Messinian Salinity Crisis while those of the Alçıtepe Formation postdate this outstanding event, which severely impacted the region as widely known around the Mediterranean Basin. Fluvial canyon cutting or gap in sedimentation linked to the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis separates the two formations. Detailed palaeoenvironmental investigations (based on the fluctuation and distribution pattern of dinoflagellate cysts, pollen grains and calcareous nannoplankton) allow us to reconstruct the regional palaeogeography before, during and after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The gathered data do not indicate any marine corridor between the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Paratethys through the Marmara Sea region at the time of the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

The karstic canyon of Lower Ardehe is located in the Middle Rhone valley, which is directly tributary to the Mediterranean Sea. The Rhone River is emblematic of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) impact on landscape morphology. Along the edge of the Saint-Remeze Plateau, the Rhone valley displays four benchmark levels generated by the MSC: the Pre-evaporitic abandonment surface (11), the Messinian erosional surface (2), the Marine/non-marine surface of the Pliocene ria (3) and the Pliocene abandonment surface (4)The study of these benchmark levels allows us to reconstruct the evolution of the regional base level over the last 6 Ma. We obtain a curve for base-level evolution that provides a geodynamic reference. Which is used to investigate the morphogenesis of the Sant-Remeze karstic plateau.The Ardeche River downcuts the Saint-Remeze Plateau in a deep canyon, from Vallon-Pont-d'Arc to the West, to its confluence with the Rhone to the East. Several abandoned valleys are present along the western edge of the Saint-Remeze Plateau at the inlet of the Ardeche canyon. In these abandoned valleys, the fluvial deposits are related to several periods, from the Pliocene onwards. They Provide important insights into the fluvial dynamics: a 160 m-thick aggradation sequence infilled the Ardeche canyon during the Pliocene. This aggrading river caused the first lateral shifting, as an aggradation epigenesis. This first infilling shows that the Ardeche canyon already existed before the Pliocene. Secondly, it has been demonstrated that the Ardeche Canyon is downcut into the Pre-evaporitic surface of the Saint-Remeze Plateau, dated to 5.45 Ma [Martini, J., 2005. Etude des paleokarsts des environs de Saint-Remeze (Ardeche, France): mise en evidence d'une riviere souterraine fossilisee durant la crise de salinity messinienne. Karstologia 45-46, 1-18]. Consequently, the canyon downcutting is entirely due to the MSC, and occurred during a time span of only 100 000 years. Based on these observations, it is possible to elucidate the curve of the regional base-level evolution. Hence, we are able to propose a new interpretation of the geomorphological evolution of the Saint-Remeze karstic plateau and its cave levels for the last 6 Ma. The cave levels Consist in underground short-cuts of the surface meanders. They mainly developed during the Pliocene aggradation cycle. The Chauvet Cave, famous for its Palaeolithic paintings, corresponds to one of these underground short-cuts. The aggradation period ends at the end of the Pliocene with long hi.-h-level riverbed stability. It favours the development of large low gradient surfaces as pediments.The complete Messinian-Pliocene eustatic cycle is responsible for the downcutting of the Ardeche canyon and its infilling during the Pliocene. Consequently, karst developed according to the base-level oscillations, as low gradient Surfaces and as cave levels. For the Study of the pen-Mediterranean caves and karst areas, we propose to apply the Lower Ardeche valley evolution model, based on the base-level oscillations during and after the MSC. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Scismic reflexion profiles have bun acquired during the "METYSS" cruise (2009) along the Eastern Sardinian and South-Eastern Corsican margins. These high-resolution seismic profiles penotrate up to 1 second TWT below the sea-floor, allowing to clearly image the Plio-Quaternary Messinian Salinity Crisis deposits (Upper Unit and salt) and erasion surfaces, and locally the basement. Interpretation of this set a data will allow to discuss the evolution of this area over the last 6 Ma from both Messinian and geodynamical perspectives.