Damien Do Couto
email: docoutodamien@gmail.com

Speranta-Maria Popescu
email: speranta.popescu@gmail.com

Jean-Pierre Suc
email: jeanpierre.suc@gmail.com

Carmen Mihaela

Melinte-Dobrinescu

Nadia Barhoun
email: nbarhoun@yahoo.fr

Christian Gorini
email: christian.gorini@gmail.com

Laurent Jolivet
email: laurent.jolivet@univ-orleans.fr

Jeffrey Poort

Gwénaël Jouannic
email: gwenael.jouannic@cerema.fr

Jean-Luc Auxietre
email: jean-luc.auxietre@total.com

Damien Do Couto

Lago Mare and the Messinian Salinity Crisis: Evidence from the Alboran Sea (S. Spain)

Keywords: Dinoflagellate cysts, Calcareous nannoplankton, Lago Mare, Alboran Sea, Messinian Salinity Crisis, Post-crisis reflooding

This paper provides a new environmental, sedimentological and stratigraphic context of the Lago Mare deposits from the North Alboran region and clarifies their chronologic location with respect to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. We present new micropaleontological data (dinoflagellate cysts, calcareous nannoplankton, planktonic foraminifers), correlated with field observations and offshore seismic interpretations. We show that the Lago Mare event known in three onshore localities (Río Mendelín near Malaga, Zorreras near Sorbas, Gafares near Níjar) follows the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin which ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Chronologically, these Lago Mare deposits last from the latest Messinian to the early Zanclean. In fact, the first influx of Paratethyan-organisms is revealed by the dinoflagellate cyst record from near Malaga within a Gilbert-type fan delta overlying the Messinian Erosional Surface.

Invading molluscs and/or ostracods may have persisted in lagoonal coastal areas more or less affected by discontinuous marine influxes (Sorbas and Níjar). The Malaga area is convenient for a paleogeographic and sedimentary reconstruction which shows the prevalent forcing of sea level changes during the time-interval 5.600-5.332 Ma at the difference of the usually solicited prevalent tectonics. The studied Lago Mare event is the third episode resulting in such a paleobiological assemblage in the Mediterranean region and corresponds to the final two-way water exchange at high sea level between the Mediterranean and the former Paratethys. It documents the onset of the modern marine circulation in the Mediterranean after the reflooding ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

Introduction

In the Mediterranean Basin, the term Lago Mare designates a deposit related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis1 characterized by brackish water environments. Such deposits are usually considered to have preceded marine reflooding [START_REF] Cita | Sedimentation in the latest Messinian at Capo Rossello (Sicily)[END_REF], but recent researches suggest that they may have coexisted with it [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. The biofacies of the Lago Mare deposit is characterized by molluscs and/or ostracods and/or dinoflagellate cysts of Paratethyan-type (i.e., of brackish affinity; [START_REF] Gignoux | Géologie stratigraphique[END_REF][START_REF] Ruggieri | La serie marina pliocenica e quaternaria della Val Marecchia[END_REF][START_REF] Cita | Sedimentation in the latest Messinian at Capo Rossello (Sicily)[END_REF][START_REF] Bertini | On Galeacysta etrusca and the connections between the Mediterranean and the Paratethys[END_REF][START_REF] Orszag-Sperber | Changing perspectives in the concept of "Lago-Mare" in Mediterranean Late Miocene evolution[END_REF].

The Lago Mare has long been considered a unique chronostratigraphic unit overlying the Messinian evaporites [START_REF] Hsü | The origin of the Mediterranean evaporites[END_REF] generated by a rapid flow of low salinity waters from the Paratethyan basins (Dacic and Euxinian, i.e. the Black Sea s.l.) into the almost completely desiccated Mediterranean Basin [START_REF] Cita | Messinian paleoenvironments[END_REF]. Consequently, the identification of the Lago Mare type biofacies has often been considered useful for a late Messinian age. In the last decades, this concept has been contradicted by significant 4 findings. Firstly, a substantial sea level fall affected the Black Sea according to a clear erosional surface [START_REF] Gillet | Messinian event in the black sea: Evidence of a Messinian erosional surface[END_REF] overlain by clastic material (the so-called "pebbly breccia" [START_REF] Hsü | Correlation of Black Sea sequences[END_REF]. This event has been unambiguously ascribed to the time of the MSC because of the latest Messinian age at 5.45 Ma, indicated by calcareous nannofossils conjointly with climatostratigraphy, of the sediments which immediately overlie the pebbly-breccia (Popescu et al., 2010). The robust datation of this sea-level fall prevents any coeval overflow of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Basin. Moreover, the Paratethyan basins appear to have been invaded twice by Mediterranean calcareous nannoplankton, often associated with foraminifers and dinoflagellate cysts, within the time-interval of the MSC which suggests marine incursions from the Mediterranean Sea (Mărunţeanu andPapaianopol, 1995, 1998;[START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Snel | Late Miocene to Early Pliocene chronostratigraphic framework for the Dacic Basin, Romania[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the dacic basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean -Paratethys high sealevel connection[END_REF].

According to [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] two incursions of Mediterranean marine waters entered the Eastern Paratethys during high sea level periods. Simultaneously, two inflows of Paratethyan waters entered the Mediterranean. This new concept of two-way water exchanges between the Mediterranean and Eastern Paratethys led to the chronological distinction between three Lago Mare events (Fig. 1;[START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF]. Lago Mare 1 (ca. 5.640 -5.600 Ma; Fig. 1) overlies the peripheral evaporites and is topped by the Messinian Erosional Surface 1 [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] whereas Lago Mare 3 (ca. 5.460 -5.332 Ma; Fig. 1) follows the reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin and has been precisely dated by calcareous nannofossils in several places [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Earliest Zanclean age for the Colombacci and uppermost Di tetto formations of the "latest Messinian" northern Apennines: New palaeoenvironmental data from the Maccarone section (Marche Province, Italy)[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Such episodes correlated with high sea levels are supported by the occurrence of fish living in normal marine conditions in Lago Mare deposits from Italy (Carnevale et al., 2006a, b). An intermediate Lago Mare episode (Lago Mare 2: ca. 5.500 -5.460 Ma; Fig. 1) is reported only from deep holes in the Mediterranean central basins where it directly overlies the evaporites. It is mainly identified by the occurrence of ostracods of the Cyprideis pannonica group [START_REF] Iaccarino | Paleoenvironment of uppermost Messinians equences in the Western mediterranean (Sites 974, 975, and 978)[END_REF] but the biofacies is incompletely known. Its significance remains uncertain, usually related to a freshwater input ending the evaporitic phase [START_REF] Orszag-Sperber | Changing perspectives in the concept of "Lago-Mare" in Mediterranean Late Miocene evolution[END_REF], which is still unsatisfactorily documented.

Here we present a revision of a new locality of Lago Mare deposit near Malaga (Fig. 2), described by [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Caracterización de la sedimentación Lago Mare (Messiniense terminal) y de la transgresión del comienzo del Plioceno en la cuenca de Málaga (Cordillera Bética)[END_REF], 2010). Detailed biostratigraphic analysis of these deposits and of the classical Lago Mare localities near Sorbas (Fig. 2B; [START_REF] Civis | Presencia de Cyprideis pannonica pseudoagrigentina DECIMA en el Miembro Zorreras (Sorbas, Almería)[END_REF][START_REF] Roep | Sedimentological and ostracodological observations on Messinian post-evaporite deposits of some southeastern Spanish basins[END_REF] and Níjar (Fig. 2B; [START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF][START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF] have allowed us to revise the age, depositional environments and stratigraphic location with respect to the Messinian Erosional Surface of the westernmost Lago Mare deposits around the Mediterranean Sea and to present an up-todate geographic distribution of the three types of Lago Mare.

The conventional Messinian age given to the Lago Mare in the Malaga area led [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF] to consider this deposit as sandwiched between two erosional surfaces. It was thus crucial to clarify which of these surfaces corresponds to the late Messinian sea-level drawdown. Offshore Malaga, the erosion observed underneath the Pliocene series was so intense that Messinian units disappear toward the land while Pliocene sediments directly overlie the Tortonian series near the coastline [START_REF] Comas | The origin and tectonic history of the Alboran basin: insights from Leg 161 results[END_REF] see fig. 8). Therefore, the recognition of the Messinian Erosional Surface in the Malaga sections needed a sea-land correlation (using available offshore seismic lines; Fig. 2B) to appear unambiguous.

Fig. 1: Chronotratigraphy of the events related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the peripheral and central Mediterranean basins: deposition of evaporites, subaerial and marine erosion, Lago Mare [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Correlations with the 18O curve from Site 982 from the benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides kullenbergi [START_REF] Hodell | Correlation of late Miocene to early Pliocene sequences between the Mediterranean and North Atlantic[END_REF] on which has been established and adjusted the global sea level curve from [START_REF] Miller | A 180-Million-Year Record of Sea Level and Ice Volume Variations[END_REF]. Relationships with the Eastern Paratethys are indicated by double arrows [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Chronology is from [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] and [START_REF] Manzi | Age refinement of the Messinian salinity crisis onset in the Mediterranean[END_REF]. Molluscs: Dr, Dreissenids; L, Lymnocardiids; O, Ostracods; D, Dinoflagellate cysts; F, Foraminifers; N, Calcareous nannofossils.

Lago Mare deposits in the northern coastline of the Alboran Sea

The Malaga Basin

The Malaga Basin (Fig. 2B) is located above two alpine metamorphic nappes of the Betic Internal Zones [START_REF] Torres-Roldán | The tectonic subdivision of the Betic Zone (Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain); its significance and one possible geotectonic scenario for the westernmost Alpine Belt[END_REF][START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Tectonic evolution of the Malaga Basin (Betic Cordillera). Regional implications[END_REF] above which three successive sedimentary episodes, disrupted by major unconformities, took place during the Neogene (López-Garrido and Sanz de Galdeano, 1999). The older sedimentary phase, comprising postnappe Oligocene to Early Miocene transgressive units (Sanz de [START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Tectonic evolution of the Malaga Basin (Betic Cordillera). Regional implications[END_REF][START_REF] Serrano | Tectono-sedimentary setting of the Oligocene-early Miocene deposits on the Betic-Rifian Internal Zone (Spain and Morocco)[END_REF], is mostly confined to the northern part of the Malaga Basin (Fig. 2B). After the Burdigalian, the basin remained emerged until the deposition of shallow marine conglomerates, sands and calcarenites attributed to the Tortonian (Sanz de [START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Tectonic evolution of the Malaga Basin (Betic Cordillera). Regional implications[END_REF][START_REF] Serrano | Tectono-sedimentary setting of the Oligocene-early Miocene deposits on the Betic-Rifian Internal Zone (Spain and Morocco)[END_REF][START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF]. Tortonian deposits are unconformably overlain by transgressive Pliocene marine deposits (López-Garrido and Sanz de Galdeano, 1999). These Pliocene deposits are composed of coarse-grained deposits passing laterally to blue-grey marls and clays (Sanz de [START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Tectonic evolution of the Malaga Basin (Betic Cordillera). Regional implications[END_REF][START_REF] López-Garrido | Neogene sedimentation and tectonoeustatic control of the Malaga Basin, South Spain[END_REF]. According to these authors, the clayey fine-grained sediments contain planktonic foraminifera assemblages [Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae and Globoconella (Globorotalia) puncticulata] indicating an early or middle Pliocene age [START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF].

To the North of Malaga (Fig. 2B), the reddish to purplish Lago Mare sediments described by [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Caracterización de la sedimentación Lago Mare (Messiniense terminal) y de la transgresión del comienzo del Plioceno en la cuenca de Málaga (Cordillera Bética)[END_REF], 2010) are exposed near the confluence of the Río Mendelín and Río Guadalmedina (Fig. 2C). The Lago Mare biofacies is attested by the occurrence of bivalves (Dreissena ex gr. rostriformis, Pachydacna, Pontalmyra, Prosodacnomya) and ostracods (Amnicythere sp., Cyprideis agrigentina, Euxinocythere sp., Loxoconcha sp., Tyrrhenocythere pontica, etc.) of Paratethyan-type. Very rare wellpreserved specimens of planktonic and benthic foraminifers have been found in the upper part of the Lago Mare Unit, nonetheless suggesting a marine influence. [START_REF] Estévez González | Malaga -Torremolinos[END_REF]. Boxes indicate the studied sections (Río Mendelín and El Túnel) with the corresponding figures.

According to [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Caracterización de la sedimentación Lago Mare (Messiniense terminal) y de la transgresión del comienzo del Plioceno en la cuenca de Málaga (Cordillera Bética)[END_REF]2010: figs. 2 and3): -An alluvial fan made of conglomerates fills a paleo-valley cut within the metamorphic Betic basement during active tectonic uplift and including the part of the Lago Mare coarse-grained sediments; -subsequently, Lago Mare Unit is affected by intense erosion linked to tectonic activity of the normal fault, suggesting a phase of sedimentary interruption; -Zanclean marine sediments onlap this erosional surface.

The Zanclean Unit is composed of yellowish clays which contain, among other foraminifers, Sphaeroidinellopsis spp. and Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae, the latter being more common in the upper part (Fig. 3). According to its continuous reverse polarity, the Río Mendelín section is placed within the paleomagnetic Chron C3r. At last, the Río Mendelín Lago Mare is considered as a transitional unit deposited in a transgressive context leading to the Zanclean marine reflooding [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF]. This assumption is in contradiction with the erosional contact of the Zanclean yellowish clays above the Lago Mare deposits [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF].

Fig. 3: The studied Río Mendelín section. A, Photograph of the sampled section; B, Log of the section with location of samples 1 to 14 (distance between two successive samples is indicated in Table 1); C, Photograph of the marine-continental transition; D, Log of the marine-continental transition; E, Zoomed photograph of the continuously sampled interval between samples 5 and 6 (samples a-j; distance between two successive samples: 10 cm).

The Sorbas and Níjar basins

The Sorbas and Níjar Basins are intramontane basins developed above metamorphic nappes of the southern Betics (Fig. 2B;[START_REF] Torres-Roldán | The tectonic subdivision of the Betic Zone (Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain); its significance and one possible geotectonic scenario for the westernmost Alpine Belt[END_REF][START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Stratigraphic record and palaeogeographical context of the Neogene basins in the Betic Cordillera, Spain[END_REF]. The sedimentary succession of these two Neogene basins has been intensively analysed during the last decades, leading to contradictory interpretations about the process of the MSC [START_REF] Ott D"estevou | Le bassin de Sorbas -Tabernas[END_REF][START_REF] Riding | Coral-stromatolite reef framework, Upper Miocene, Almería, Spain[END_REF][START_REF] Rouchy | Late Miocene events in the Mediterranean as recorded by carbonate-evaporite relations[END_REF][START_REF] Gautier | Age et durée de la crise de salinité messinienne[END_REF][START_REF] Dabrio | Oscilaciones eustáticas de alta frequencia en el Neógeno superior de Sorbas (Almería, sureste de España)[END_REF][START_REF] Krijgsman | Astrochronology for the Messinian Sorbas basin (SE Spain) and orbital (precessional) forcing for evaporite cyclicity[END_REF][START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF][START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF][START_REF] Braga | Testing models for the Messinian salinity crisis: The Messinian record in Almería, SE Spain[END_REF][START_REF] Roveri | The Terminal Carbonate Complex: the record of sea-level changes during the Messinian salinity crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Bourillot | The end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the western Mediterranean: Insights from the carbonate platforms of south-eastern Spain[END_REF]Omodéo Salé et al., 2012;Clauzon et al., 2009, revised). The sedimentation of the southeastern Betic basins took place in the Serravallian-Tortonian (Sanz de [START_REF] Sanz De Galdeano | Stratigraphic record and palaeogeographical context of the Neogene basins in the Betic Cordillera, Spain[END_REF]. The lower Messinian record consists of a thick succession of coarse-and fine-grained deposits subdivided into three members: Azagador, Abad and Cantera ( [START_REF] Van De Poel | Messinian straligraphy of the Níjar Basin (S.E. Spain) and the origin of its gypsum-ghost limestones[END_REF][START_REF] Sierro | The Abad composite (SE Spain): a Messinian reference section for the Mediterranean and the APTS[END_REF][START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF]. The late Messinian series with a thick evaporitic sequence (Yesares Member) made up of gypsum and clay alternations in both the Sorbas and Níjar basins [START_REF] Dronkert | Late miocene evaporites in the Sorbas Basin and adjoining aeras[END_REF] resulting from the first sea-level fall of the MSC [START_REF] Clauzon | Alternate interpretation of the Messinian salinity crisis: Controversy resolved?[END_REF]CIESM, 2008).

In the Sorbas Basin, the post-evaporitic sedimentation is also separated from the Messinian gypsums by the Messinian Erosional Surface overlain in some places by chaotic debris flows with large blocks of reworked gypsum (Clauzon et al., revised).

Three whitish clayey layers are described within the Zorreras Member (Fig. 4A) which overlies calcareous beds containing a coastal fish (Aphanius crassicaudus), above the Messinian Erosional Surface and the Yesares evaporitic Member (Ott d"Estevou and [START_REF] Ott D"estevou | Le bassin de Sorbas -Tabernas[END_REF]. These whitish layers contain Paratethyan-type fossils (dreissenids, lymnocardiids, ostracods) with some coastal foraminifers [START_REF] Civis | Presencia de Cyprideis pannonica pseudoagrigentina DECIMA en el Miembro Zorreras (Sorbas, Almería)[END_REF][START_REF] Roep | Sedimentological and ostracodological observations on Messinian post-evaporite deposits of some southeastern Spanish basins[END_REF][START_REF] Ott D"estevou | Le bassin de Sorbas -Tabernas[END_REF]. They have been thus considered as Lago Mare biofacies and attributed to the Messinian [START_REF] Dabrio | Oscilaciones eustáticas de alta frequencia en el Neógeno superior de Sorbas (Almería, sureste de España)[END_REF][START_REF] Martín-Suárez | On the age of the continental deposits of the Zorreras Member (Sorbas Basin, SE Spain)[END_REF][START_REF] Krijgsman | Astrochronology for the Messinian Sorbas basin (SE Spain) and orbital (precessional) forcing for evaporite cyclicity[END_REF] while an earliest Pliocene age has been foreseen by [START_REF] Ott D"estevou | Le bassin de Sorbas -Tabernas[END_REF], which is now established by Clauzon et al. (2009, revised).

In the Níjar Basin (Fig. 2B), an erosional surface truncates the evaporitic unit [START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF] and has been referred to the Messinian Erosional Surface [START_REF] Omodeo Salé | Tectonic and climatic control on the Late Messinian sedimentary evolution of the Níjar Basin (Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain)[END_REF]. Within the overlying Feos Formation, a chaotic unit mostly made of reworked gypsum blocks fills the Messinian valley delimited by this erosional surface [START_REF] Omodeo Salé | Tectonic and climatic control on the Late Messinian sedimentary evolution of the Níjar Basin (Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain)[END_REF]. This chaotic deposit has been first interpreted as a slump [START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF], then as a debris flow ascribed to the post-MSC marine reflooding [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. At Gafares, several whitish clayey layers are exposed within the Feos Formation (Fig. 4B). They contain Paratethyan-type ostracods [START_REF] Roep | Sedimentological and ostracodological observations on Messinian post-evaporite deposits of some southeastern Spanish basins[END_REF][START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF], rare coastal foraminifers [START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF]) and the same fish species as at Sorbas (Aphanius crassicaudus; de la [START_REF] Chapelle | Découverte de deux nouveaux gisements de poissons fossiles messiniens dans le bassin de Níjar-Carboneras (Andalousie orientale): signification paléoécologique et implications paléogéographiques[END_REF]. These Lago Mare deposits have been also ascribed to the post-evaporitic Messinian [START_REF] Roep | Sedimentological and ostracodological observations on Messinian post-evaporite deposits of some southeastern Spanish basins[END_REF][START_REF] Dabrio | Oscilaciones eustáticas de alta frequencia en el Neógeno superior de Sorbas (Almería, sureste de España)[END_REF][START_REF] Krijgsman | Astrochronology for the Messinian Sorbas basin (SE Spain) and orbital (precessional) forcing for evaporite cyclicity[END_REF][START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF][START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF][START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF]. However, on the basis of a lateral change and interbed with marine deposits, [START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF] suggested that the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin took place prior to the "Zanclean deluge" and questioned the chronostratigraphic significance of the Lago Mare deposits.

For these basins, we will only pay interest to the Lago Mare deposits and bordering layers, their stratigraphy having recently been re-visited in detail by Clauzon et al. (2009, revised), [START_REF] Roveri | The Terminal Carbonate Complex: the record of sea-level changes during the Messinian salinity crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Omodeo Salé | Tectonic and climatic control on the Late Messinian sedimentary evolution of the Níjar Basin (Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain)[END_REF], respectively.

Materials and methods

Micropaleontological analyses

We sampled the concerned sections, to acquire dinoflagellate cysts and/or calcareous nannofossils, which were not investigated during previous studies, and thus gives the opportunity to improve the characterization of both the age and the environment of the Lago Mare deposits:

-24 samples at Río Mendelín (Figs. 2C); results from a first sampling (samples 1-14; Fig. 3B), which provided a diversified calcareous nannoflora plus foraminifers and (marine and brackish Paratethyan-type) dinoflagellate cysts, prompted a second sampling at higher resolution between samples 5 and 6 (1 m of space continuously sampled, 10 cm of thickness per sample: samples a-j; Fig. 3E) which is known as the richest interval in all types of organisms (the above mentioned microorganisms, plus Paratethyan-type molluscs and ostracods according to [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF]; -3 samples from the El Túnel locality (Fig. 2C); and 3 in the whitish clayey layers W1, W2 and W3, respectively; Figs. 2B,4A); -5 samples at Gafares (3, 3 and 2 in the whitish clayey layers W1, W2 and W3, respectively; Figs. 2B,4B).

For the analysis of dinoflagellate cysts, each sample (50 gram of dry sediment) was processed using a standard method [START_REF] Cour | Nouvelles techniques de détection des flux et de retombées polliniques: étude de la sédimentation des pollens et des spores à la surface du sol[END_REF]: cold acid digestion, concentration in ZnCl 2 (at density 2.0), and sieving at 10 and 20 µm. A 50 µl volume of residue was mounted within glycerol between coverslip and microscope slide in order to allow rotation of the dinoflagellate cysts. Their identification (at magnification x1000) and counting (at magnification x250) of a minimum of 150 specimens per sample were made on a light microscope. Detailed observations were performed on a ZEISS Ultra-55 Scanning Electron Microscope.

To retain the original sample composition for calcareous nannofossils, smear slides were prepared directly from the untreated sediment. The calcareous nannofloral analysis was performed using a light polarizing microscope at magnification x1600. The nannofloral taxonomic identification followed [START_REF] Perch-Nielsen | Cenozoic calcareous nannofossils[END_REF] and [START_REF] Young | Chapter 9: Neogene[END_REF].

Finally, aiming to improve biostratigraphic control, we searched for planktonic foraminifers by sieving at 250-150-63 µm (Río Mendelín: samples a to j and 6).

Onshore-offshore stratigraphic analysis

In addition to new micropaleontological data, our study aims at an onshore-offshore stratigraphic correlation of the late Neogene sedimentary succession of the Malaga area. Onshore, we particularly followed the contact between the substratum (Malaguide Complex) and the overlying Neogene sediments. We paid special attention to the sedimentary organization of these Neogene deposits.

Offshore, several stratigraphic analyses were performed on 2D seismic profiles acquired in the southern Spanish margin during the last decades (ALB, AS, EAS and SHLS cruises; Fig. 2B). These studies highlighted the occurrence of six major sequences spanning the Lower Miocene to Quaternary [START_REF] Jurado | Well log interpretation and seismic character of the cenozoic sequence in the northern Alboran Sea[END_REF][START_REF] Comas | The origin and tectonic history of the Alboran basin: insights from Leg 161 results[END_REF]. We re-examined the uppermost units I and II (Messinian and Pliocene to Pleistocene; [START_REF] Jurado | Well log interpretation and seismic character of the cenozoic sequence in the northern Alboran Sea[END_REF] focusing on their geometry separated by an erosive unconformity, called the M reflector [START_REF] Comas | Neogene tectonic evolution of the Alboran Sea from MCS data[END_REF][START_REF] Chalouan | Neogene tectonic evolution of the southwestern Alboran basin as inferred from seismic data off Morocco[END_REF]. The M reflector (e.g. the Messinian Erosional Surface) has been picked and a paleo-bathymetric map of the Messinian erosion has been performed. This paleo-bathymetric map has been depth converted using the average water velocity of 1500 m.s-1 and 2000 m.s-1 for the Pliocene and Quaternary sediments (Comas et al., 1996).

Results

Our micropaleontological analyses concern the three kinds of protists belonging to phytoplankton (dinoflagellates, coccoliths) or zooplankton (foraminifers), respectively.

They are used in onshore-ooffshore correlations.

Dinoflagellate cysts

Dinoflagellate cysts have been identified in six of the thirty-two samples gathered from the Lago Mare deposits in the Río Mendelín section (samples a, b, e, f, h, 6; Fig. 5).

However, no dinoflagellate cysts have been observed in the Zorreras and Gafares sections. Among the 26 recorded taxa, 14 are marine species, 12 are brackish of Paratethyan-type. One specimen of Radiosperma corbiferum (marine to brackish microorganism) has been recorded in sample b (Fig. 5). In addition, Pediastrum (freshwater green alga) has been recorded in samples e, f, h and 6 (Fig. 5). Reworked dinoflagellate cysts (mostly from Lower-Middle Miocene) have been found, more frequently in samples where freshwater input is indicated by Pediastrum (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Dinoflagellate cysts recorded in the Río

Mendelín section, grouped according to their ecological significance. Synthetic diagram shows the relative abundance of the groups: 1, marine taxa (white line separates stenohaline species to the left from euryhaline taxa to the right); 2, brackish taxa (black line separates Galeacysta etrusca to the left from the other taxa to the right); 3, indeterminable plus indeterminate cysts; 4, freshwater taxa. Spiniferites spp. are indicated both as marine and brackish taxa. They are mostly made of fragments which prohibit a species ascribtion but can be ecologically classified according to their morphology.

Dinoflagellate cysts and other taxa have been grouped into their ecological requirements [START_REF] Londeix | Messinian paleoenvironments and hydrology in Sicily (Italy): The dinoflagellate cyst record[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Zonneveld | Atlas of modern dinoflagellate cyst distribution based on 2405 data points[END_REF], as follows (Fig. 5  marine to brackish species: Radiosperma corbiferum;

 freshwater taxon: Pediastrum sp.

A synthetic diagram summarizes the relative abundance of the dinoflagellate cysts groups (Fig. 5):

 marine stenohaline species fluctuate between 5.3 and 14.3%, with a maximum in sample f, indicating some increase of oceanic water influx;

 marine euryhaline taxa show a relative abundance between 10 and 34%, with maximum in sample h, where cosmopolitan species of Spiniferites (i.e., S.

ramosus and S. bulloideus) developed;

 high percentages of Paratethyan-type taxa (53-84%), mostly dominated by Galeacysta etrusca (21-28) accompanied by Pontiadinium spp. (3-11%) and fragments of Spiniferites spp., the morphology of which allows to refer to brackish affinities (2-15%);

 indeterminable cysts (because of poor preservation) and indeterminate cysts (often fragments of cysts) show relative abundance around 4%, except in sample h where they reach 10%;

 Pediastrum, freshwater element, transported by rivers, is scarce (0.9 -4%), reaching 4% in sample h.

This dinoflagellate cyst assemblage highlights the marine conditions of the Lago Mare deposits in the Río Mendelín section. Several well-preserved specimens of Galeacysta etrusca are shown in Figure 6.

Calcareous nannofossils

A calcareous nannoflora, more or less well-preserved, has been observed in the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section (Fig. 3B; samples 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10).

Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus is the only biostratigraphic marker recorded in sample 1

(Table 1). In samples 5, 6 and 10, the calcareous nannoflora is particularly diversified (Table 1) and displays Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus and Ceratolithus acutus (Fig. 7).

Nannoplankton assemblages include reworked specimens (from Cretaceous to Miocene) which are not mentioned in the figures. A calcareous nannoflora has also been found in samples 11 to 13, especially in sample 12 where Ceratolithus acutus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus are also present. In addition, a calcareous nannoflora has been found in the three samples gathered from the El Túnel locality (Table 1) and may be ascribed to the NN12a nannoplankton subzone based on the occurrence of T. rugosus in sample 2 (Fig. 1; [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF][START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]. All samples gathered from the three whitish clayey layers of the Zorreras section (Sorbas Basin) are barren. However, the three samples from the clays immediately underlying the basal whitish clayey layer W1 (Fig. 4A) contain a nannoflora including Ceratolithus acutus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus (Table 1) which is thus ascribed to the early NN12b nannoplankton subzone (Fig. 1;[START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF][START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]. In addition, underlying laminated beds (Fig. 4A) which, in a nearby section, yielded remains of the fish Aphanius crassicaudus (a fossil species considered as living in costal marine to brackish waters; [START_REF] Gaudant | Première découverte d"Aphanius crassicaudus (Agassiz) (poisson téléostéen, Cyprinodontidae) dans le Messinien post-évaporitique d"Andalousie[END_REF], also contain C. acutus and T. rugosus (Clauzon et al., revised). These whitish layers thus deposited later than the marine sediments in this area.

Three samples taken from the lowermost whitish clayey layer W1 of the Gafares section (Níjar) are barren. A calcareous nannoflora containing Ceratolithus acutus as biostratigraphic marker (Table 1) has been recorded in the second whitish clayey layer W2 (sample 1) and can be ascribed to the late NN12b nannoplankton subzone (Fig. 1; [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF][START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]. In the overlying whitish clayey layer W3, sample 4 contains some calcareous nannofossils but not biostratigraphic markers (Table 1). Twenty seven metres above, Ceratolithus acutus has also been observed in a clay layer where Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae was pointed out by [START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF]. In this area, the upper whitish layers W2 and W3 were still influenced by marine waters. Scale bar: 5 m.

Planktonic foraminifers

Planktonic foraminifers have been recorded in samples a to f and 6 from the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section (Fig. 3). 4.4. Onshore-offshore stratigraphic analysis: the occurrence of Gilbert-type fan deltas At El Túnel locality (Fig. 2C), an erosional surface is particularly well-exposed on the metamorphic Betic basement (Fig. 8A-C). This surface is overlain by a steep southdipping deltaic complex. The sedimentation starts with somewhat large subrounded blocks followed by conglomeratic to sandy foreset beds. These foreset beds are laterally replaced by silty-clayey bottomset beds in which the samples were taken (Fig. 8C). This sedimentary pattern is characteristic of the subaqueous unit of a Gilbert-type fan delta in its proximal part [START_REF] Clauzon | Restitution de l"évolution géodynamique néogène du bassin du Roussillon et de l"unité adjacente des Corbières d"après les données écostratigraphiques et paléogéographiques[END_REF] as usually observed within the Messinian valleys around the Mediterranean Basin [START_REF] Clauzon | Pliocene geodynamic and climatic evolutions in the French Mediterranean region[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | Neogene and Lower Pleistocene in Southern France and Northeastern Spain. Mediterranean environments and climate[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] and its appendices, such as the Dacic Basin in the Paratethys [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the dacic basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean -Paratethys high sealevel connection[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. The marine nature of the Guadalmedina Gilbert-type fan delta is attested by a calcareous nannoflora (Table 1), devoid of precise biostratigraphic marker, except Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus (highest occurrence at 5.279 Ma; Fig. 1; [START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF] obtained in three samples from the bottomset beds at El Túnel (Table 1). As a consequence, the clayey sediments exposed at the Río Mendelín section might be considered as the basinward extension of the bottomset beds observed at El Túnel. However, the Río Mendelín series is also nested within the metamorphic basement and begins with conglomeratic to sandy foreset beds which laterally pass to the dominantly clayey Lago Mare sediments (Fig. 8D). This secondary prograding sedimentary system must hence be regarded as a small size Gilbert-type fan delta tributary of the larger Guadalmedina Gilbert-type fan delta. This is in agreement with the geological map of the area which suggests two coalescing fans (Fig. 2C;[START_REF] Estévez González | Malaga -Torremolinos[END_REF]. Based on the recognition of NN12a and b calcareous nannofloras (in the Río Mendelín and El Túnel sections), the Guadalmedina Gilbert-type fan delta is dated from the latest Messinian to earliest Zanclean (Fig. 1), consistently with the occurrence of Globoturborotalia (Globigerina) nepenthes in the Lago Mare sediments (Río Mendelín). As a consequence, the erosional surface observed at El Túnel (Fig. 8A,B) is the MES which can also be followed up to the Río Mendelín section (Fig. 8D) and corresponds to the peak of the MSC (Fig. 2C). The Río Mendelín section is topped by reddish conglomerates (Fig. 3C,D) which have been ascribed to Quaternary [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF]. They are made of rounded pebbles which attest to their alluvial origin. They are separated from the underlying bottomset beds (yellowish clays) by an almost horizontal (15 cm thick) white marly layer without any sign of erosion at its top (Fig. 3C,D). We thus consider that there is no sedimentary gap in the succession from the yellowish clays to the reddish conglomerates that we interpret as the topset beds of the Gilbert-type fan delta (i.e. its subaerial unit). The conglomeratic topset beds of the Mediterranean Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas are commonly red as shown in Figure 4 for the Zorreras Member of the Sorbas Basin. We interpret the underlying white marly layer (Fig. 3C,D) as the marine-continental transition which, with the MES, is one of the morphological features of a Mediterranean Zanclean Gilberttype fan delta (for more detail, see: [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]: figure 2). This prograding sedimentary filling is the result of the post-MSC marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin which transformed the Messinian fluvial valleys into marine rias [START_REF] Clauzon | Pliocene geodynamic and climatic evolutions in the French Mediterranean region[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Then, it has then been affected by the Quaternary erosion of the Guadalmedina and Mendelín rivers, and does not currently superimpose their respective Messinian valleys (Fig. 2C), a current phenomenon described as the "aggradation epigenesis" [START_REF] Clauzon | L"impact des variations eustatiques du bassin de Méditerranée occidentale sur l"orogène alpin depuis 20 Ma[END_REF]Clauzon et al., revised). The MES observed at El Túnel can be followed off the Iberian margin on seismic profiles (Figs. 2B,9). Its identification offshore is based on correlations with previous seismic stratigraphy studies [START_REF] Jurado | Well log interpretation and seismic character of the cenozoic sequence in the northern Alboran Sea[END_REF][START_REF] Comas | The origin and tectonic history of the Alboran basin: insights from Leg 161 results[END_REF][START_REF] Del Olmo | Arquitectura sísmica, olistostromas y fallas extensionales en el norte de la cuenca oeste del Mar de Albrán[END_REF] and biostratigraphic analyses from the Alboran A1 and ODP 976 holes (Fig. 2B; [START_REF] Comas | The origin and tectonic history of the Alboran basin: insights from Leg 161 results[END_REF][START_REF] Serrano | Biostratigraphy and paleoceanography of the Pliocene at Sites 975 (Menorca Rise) and 976 (Alboran Sea) from a quantitative analysis of the planktonic foraminiferal assemblages[END_REF][START_REF] Siesser | Neogene calcareous nannofossils: western Mediterranean biostratigraphy and paleoclimatology[END_REF].

The MES is characterized by the angular unconformity separating the Miocene from Pliocene sediments [START_REF] Campillo | Stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the western Alboran Sea: Late Miocene to recent[END_REF][START_REF] Alonso | Pliocene-Pleistocene sedimentary facies at Site 976: depositional history in the northwestern Alboran Sea[END_REF][START_REF] Comas | The origin and tectonic history of the Alboran basin: insights from Leg 161 results[END_REF]. The seismic profile EAS-7, almost perpendicular to the coast and in continuation with the Pliocene rias observed onshore (Río Guadalhorce and Río Guadalmedina; Fig. 9C), displays southward prograding Pliocene sediments over the angular unconformity (Fig. 9A). The southward progradation of the Pliocene deposits is marked by the succession of downlap terminations on the MES (red arrows in Figure 9A). Analysis of the seismic profile EAS-82, perpendicular to EAS-7, displays the sharp geometry of the MES reflector and the morphology of a 8 km wide valley filled by Pliocene sediments (Fig. 9B). Offshore Malaga, the sediments immediately overlying the MES have been dated in two wells (ODP Site 976 and the industrial Alboran A1 borehole) on the basis of the lowest occurrence of the planktonic foraminifer Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae. , 2009;Clauzon et al., 2009, revised). However, aware of a possible confusion, and waiting for new reliable data from the Alboran offshore sections, we will use in this paper "Pliocene" to describe the deposits overlying the MES offshore by contrast with the underlying "Miocene" ones, consistently with the available literature.

Using all the seismic profiles indicated in Figure 2B, the MES has systematically been picked to reconstruct the paleo-bathymetry of the Messinian valley (Fig. 9C). The Messinian valley is followed over tens of kilometers toward the centre of the basin where its course and termination have been described by [START_REF] Estrada | Impact of pulsed Atlantic water inflow into the Alboran Basin at the time of the Zanclean flooding[END_REF].

Discussion

Our results indicate that: (1) the Lago Mare layers were deposited under marine conditions;

(2) their lowermost part (samples 1-4) may belong to the NN12a nannoplankton subzone based on the occurrence of Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus, and (3) their upper part (samples 5-12) belongs to the nannoplankton subzone NN12b with respect to the co-occurrence of C. acutus and T. rugosus (Fig. 1;[START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF][START_REF] Melinte-Dobrinescu | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the Dardanelles region: Chronostratigraphic constraints[END_REF]. We will first develop our thought about the origin and mode of transport of the Paratethyan-type organisms, before discussing the sedimentary specificity of the Río Mendelín Lago Mare and its setting in the context of the Lago Mare biofacies in southern Spain then with respect to their distribution in the whole Mediterranean region.

5.1. Origin and mode of transport of the Paratethyan-type organisms.

These questionings narrowly linked, several times discussed (see for a large review:

Orszag-Sperber, 2006), need to be re-examined to highlight our results and specify our interpretations. We have used "Paratethyan-type" for describing the characteristic organisms of the Lago Mare biofacies in order to avoid an a priori link to an unquestionable origin from the Paratethys. Concerning brackish molluscs, foraminifers and ostracods of "marine" origin, a doubt has been introduced for a long time on the significance of their occurrence in isolated Holocene hyposaline environments, distant from the sea, in North Africa [START_REF] Gasse | Biological remains, geochemistry and stable isotopes for the reconstruction of environmental and hydrological changes in the Holocene lakes from North Sahara[END_REF][START_REF] Plaziat | Modern and fossil potamids (Gastropods) in saline lakes[END_REF]. To explain such examples, transport by birds was considered which was hence proposed for Lago Mare fossils too (see: Orszag-Sperber, 2006, and references therein), making such paleoenvironments the host of an endemic life [START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF]. Transportation by birds seems improbable in the case of dinoflagellates because of fragility to oxydation of their encysted forms while their motile forms live few hours. According to high number of dinoflagellate cyst records before and after the MSC both in the Mediterranean and Paratethys, there is no doubt on the occurrence of Galeacysta etrusca in brackish Paratethyan environments prior to the Mediterranean Lago Mare sediments (see : Popescu et al., 2009, and references therein). If Paratethyan-type organisms were transported by birds, how to explain, particularly for Lago Mare 1 and 3, that such events are concentrated in a so short time-window (some 300 kyrs, from about 5.640 to 5.332 Ma; Fig. 1) and have been never repeatedly reported in the so deeply investigated past environments of the Mediterranean. It is clear that, at the state of our knowledge, the easiest way for transportation of so many organisms was a direct but temporary connection between the Mediterranean and Paratethys through a marine gateway, the location of which may have sifted along time. Concerning the late Messinian and early

Zanclean, this assumption is strongly supported by geological data through the Balkans [START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] and the record of marine organisms (foraminifers, coccoliths, dinoflagellates) in the Dacic Basin [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the dacic basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean -Paratethys high sealevel connection[END_REF].

The Paratethyan-type (usually considered as brackish) dinoflagellate cyst Spiniferites cruciformis is reported from a Late Quaternary freshwater lake in northern Greece [START_REF] Kouli | Spiniferites cruciformis: a fresh water dinoflagellate cyst?[END_REF]. The authors consider that this environment corresponded to the usual ecology of this species. We must emphasize that this is an isolated example which requires to be confirmed, as this species can adapt to environment changes in developing various morphologies. We repeatedly found Spiniferites cruciformis in our analyses associated with Galeacysta etrusca, the Paratethyan origin of which and its brackish ecology being above re-affirmed.

As a consequence, we will then consider that the Paratethyan-type organisms constituting the Lago Mare biofacies have an actual Paratethyan origin and that their transportation into the Mediterranean was forced by water currents, except for the Lago Mare 2 event which requires to be studied in more detail. 2010) "suggest a phase of sedimentary interruption" to explain the unconformity "probably caused by a relative base-level fall, tectonic in origin, before the marine Pliocene flooding". The coastal marine environment that we identified in the Lago Mare deposits, and particularly the occurrence of Ceratolithus acutus in these sediments, challenge this interpretation, leading us to ascribe deposition of the entire Río Mendelín section as a consequence of the marine reflooding ending the MSC. Consequently, these channel-like features, separated by an erosional surface, may result from submarine gravity instabilities and/or slope processes frequently described along continental margins [START_REF] Brunt | Confined to unconfined: Anatomy of a base of slope succession, Karoo Basin, South Africa[END_REF][START_REF] Dakin | Channel-like features created by erosive submarine debris flows: Field evidence from the Middle Eocene Ainsa Basin, Spanish Pyrenees[END_REF]. They can also be found in deltaic contexts where they are usually described as slope channels [START_REF] Porębski | Shelf-margin deltas: their stratigraphic significance and relation to deepwater sands[END_REF]. Such features are frequent in the clayey deposits within the Mediterranean Zanclean rias (Fig. 10) where they may cause impressive erosive truncations outlined by conglomeratic accumulations such as at Saint-Isidore (Var Valley, southern France; Fig. 10A; [START_REF] Clauzon | Pliocene geodynamic and climatic evolutions in the French Mediterranean region[END_REF].

Sedimentary context of the

There, channelization was accentuated by the submarine confluence of a tributary Gilbert-type fan delta with that of the Var River, maybe in a context of small sea-level variations. Such conditions have probably prevailed in the Malaga area just after the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin. resulting in increased development of Gilbert-type fan deltas and clayey bottomset beds affected by submarine erosion.

To summarize, our results and interpretations contrast with those of [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Caracterización de la sedimentación Lago Mare (Messiniense terminal) y de la transgresión del comienzo del Plioceno en la cuenca de Málaga (Cordillera Bética)[END_REF], 2010) on the following major items:

-the significant erosion which impacted the Betic basement was the direct consequence of the Mediterranean Sea-level drawdown during the peak of the MSC;

-this erosion is not locally limited but is continuously followed down to the deepest Alboran Sea;

-if the Lago Mare Unit of Río Mendelín really belongs to the latest Messinian, it however must be ascribed to the 3 rd Lago Mare event which immediately followed the post-MSC marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin;

-the Río Mendelín Lago Mare Unit is a part of a Gilbert-type fan delta where the dip of conglomeratic-sandy beds has a sedimentary origin and is not tectonically forced;

-the discontinuity separating the Lago Mare Unit from Pl-1 Unit results from submarine gravity instabilities commonly observed in such deltaic systems and cannot be considered as expressing the regional tectonic activity.

In the Sorbas Basin, the marine clays post-dating the MSC and dated in many places by Ceratolithus acutus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus calcareous nannofossils, either comprise the bottomset beds of Gilbert-type fan deltas in their proximal location or the basinward extension of these bottomset beds (Clauzon et al., 2009, revised). In some localities, such as at Zorreras hill (Fig. 4A), these marine clays are immediately overlain by the lower whitish clayey layers (i.e. Lago Mare deposits) of the Zorreras Member overlying the marine-continental transition.

29

In the Níjar Basin, specifically at Gafares, the Lago Mare whitish clayey layers belong to the Feos Formation [START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF] which is the local equivalent of the Zorreras Formation in the Sorbas Basin [START_REF] Fortuin | The Messinian of the Níjar Basin (SE Spain): sedimentation, depositional environments and paleogeographic evolution[END_REF]. They are part of a continental series affected by some repeated marine influxes [START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF][START_REF] Bassetti | Evolution of depositional environments after the end of Messinian Salinity Crisis in Níjar basin (SE Betic Cordillera)[END_REF][START_REF] Omodeo Salé | Tectonic and climatic control on the Late Messinian sedimentary evolution of the Níjar Basin (Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain)[END_REF].

Accordingly, the Lago Mare deposits studied in southern Spain clearly belong to the post-MSC sedimentary infilling process of fluvial valleys cut during the peak of the crisis. Such sedimentary successions refer to Gilbert-type fan deltas (including some minor tributary ones) in the proximal areas of the Messinian valleys, which started to develop in the latest Messinian and continued during the Zanclean (Fig. 1).

Biofacies of Lago Mare deposits in southern Spain

The Lago Mare deposits of Río Mendelín are characterized by their high biological diversity and occurrence of biota having a biostratigraphic and paleoecological significance. In addition to the usual occurrence of both Paratethyan molluscs (Dreissena ex. gr. rostriformis, Pachydacna, Pontalmyra partschi, Melanopsis narzolina, Theodoxus mutinensis, etc.) and ostracods (Amnicythere accicularia, Loxocauda limata, Loxoconcha kochi, Tyrrhenocythere pontica, etc.), they contain a rich Paratethyan dinoflagellate cyst assemblage (Galeacysta etrusca, Spiniferites cruciformis, S. bentori pannonicus, etc.).

The presence of calcareous nannofossils and planktonic foraminifers together with 2). Specific environments (small bays receiving some fluvial input, for example) at the interface between brackish and marine conditions must be considered.

The reject of marine organisms, regarded a priori as reworked, has often masked the reality of these biotopes relatively complex to visualize (for a striking example, see: [START_REF] Popescu | Earliest Zanclean age for the Colombacci and uppermost Di tetto formations of the "latest Messinian" northern Apennines: New palaeoenvironmental data from the Maccarone section (Marche Province, Italy)[END_REF]. 2): 1, Río Mendelín; 2, Zorreras; 3, Gafares; 4, Cuevas del Almanzora; 5, Site 978; 6, Monforte,Colmenar,Oami;7,Papiol;8,Site 124 ;9,Site 975;10,Site 372;11,Théziers;12,13,14,Allex;15,Sioneri;16,Casabianda;17,Djebel Herageg;18,Torre Sterpi;19,Site 653;20,Site 132;21,Cava Serredi;22,Monteglino;23,Monticino;24,Site 974;25,Pomarance;26,Eraclea Minoa;27,Maccarone;28,Capo Rossello;29,Pasquasia;30,Ancone;31,Civitella del Tronto;32,Vizzini;33,Zinga;34,Site 374;35,Kavvadades;36,Agios Sostis;37,Turnu Severin;38,Hinova;39,Gabrovačka Reka;40,Drăcevo;41,Ţicleni;42,Trilophos;43,Badislava;44,Souvala;45,Skini;46,Khairetiana;47,Doiceşti;48,Bizdidel;49,Mesi;50,Site 969;51,Faneromeni;52,Călugăreni;53,Argova Valley;54,Valea Vacii;55,Intepe;56,Site 129;[START_REF] Torres-Roldán | The tectonic subdivision of the Betic Zone (Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain); its significance and one possible geotectonic scenario for the westernmost Alpine Belt[END_REF]Yalakdere;58,Site 380;59,Site 376;60,Site 967;61,Site 968;62,Giolou;63,Kerc. The NN12a-b nannoplankton age indicates that this event immediately followed the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin and its re-connection with the Paratethys, dated around 5.460 Ma [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. This event predated the Zanclean Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) set at 5.332 Ma [START_REF] Van Couvering | The base of the Zanclean Stage and of the Pliocene Series[END_REF][START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF]. In fact, the so-called "Zanclean Deluge" occurred in the latest Messinian time. The Lago Mare event recorded in the Malaga area is the third Lago Mare event shown in Figure 1. The Río Mendelín Lago Mare correlates with the Arenazzolo Unit of Sicily which, there, is separated from the underlying Lago Mare Unit (in fact the Lago Mare event 1; Fig. 1) by an angular discordance illustrating a discontinuity [START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] that we re-interpret now as the reflooding surface rather than the Messinian Erosional Surface, with a maintained sedimentary gap of 140 kyrs (5. between the two units. The yellowish clays of Río Mendelín correlate with the Sicilian Trubi Formation. The Lago Mare event 3 signals momentarily renewed water exchanges between the Mediterranean and the Eastern Paratethys after the peak of the MSC and the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean at 5.460 Ma (Fig. 1;[START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF][START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the dacic basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean -Paratethys high sealevel connection[END_REF][START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. According to [START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF], Paratethyan molluscs are restricted to the lower part of the reddish silts and marls in the Río Mendelín section while Paratethyan ostracods disappear in its upper part (Fig. 3), probably due to a salinity increase. The Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae species, more frequently recorded at the base of the overlying yellowish clays (Fig. 3), is referred by Guerra-Merchán et al.

(2010) to the first common occurrence level of the species which is also dated at 5.080

Ma by [START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF]. However, this level is significantly oldier than 5.080 Ma because of the co-occurrence of H. (G.) margaritae with Ceratolithus acutus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus (Table 1). An age comprised between 5.345 Ma (lowest occurrence of C. acutus) and 5.279 Ma (highest occurrence of T. rugosus) must hence be considered for this level at Río Mendelín (Fig. 1;[START_REF] Raffi | A review of calcareous nannofossil astrobiochronology encompassing the past 25 million years[END_REF]. H. (G.) margaritae may have entered the Mediterranean Basin prior to 5.080 Ma (see also Clauzon et al., revised, for the same evidence in the Sorbas Basin further East), consistently with its first appearance at 6.080 Ma in the nearby Atlantic Ocean [START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF] and the reflooding age of the Mediterranean Basin proposed at 5.460 by [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. The co-occurrence of brackish (Paratethyan) molluscs and ostracods with marine microorganisms (calcareous nannofossils, foraminifers, dinoflagellate cysts) in Lago Mare deposits has been questioned [START_REF] Iaccarino | Paleoenvironment of uppermost Messinians equences in the Western mediterranean (Sites 974, 975, and 978)[END_REF]. However it seems conceivable to consider that the marine microorganisms (calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellate cysts, foraminifers) plus the Paratethyan-type dinoflagellate cysts were deposited in situ in such a coastal open marine environment. After their arrival in the area brought by marine currents, the Paratethyan ostracods and molluscs would have become established in a small bay with very close coastal lagoons to explain the excellent preservation of mollusc shells which did not suffer a fluvial transport. Such an environment would have been temporarily invaded by marine waters given the repeated occurrences of marine dinoflagellate cysts (Fig. 5), calcareous nannofossils (Table 1) and some planktonic foraminifers.

The Lago Mare deposits described in the Sorbas and Níjar basins (i.e. the whitish clayey layers) are part of dominantly continental complexes, called the Zorreras Member and the Feos Formation, respectively. In the Sorbas Basin, the lower whitish clayey layer (W1) overlies marine clays containing Ceratolithus acutus and Triquetrorhabdulus rugosus (i.e. of the NN12b nannoplankton subzone) (Clauzon et al., 2009, revised), as shown at the Zorreras hill (Fig. 4A; Table 1). In some areas of the Sorbas Basin, the same clays underlying the Zorreras Member contain also Hirsutella (Globorotalia) margaritae (Clauzon et al., revised). At the Zorreras hill, dinoflagellate cysts and calcareous nannofossils have not been recorded. This may suggest that this layer is the marginal marine (lagoonal) signature of the Lago Mare, following the marine invasive episode. A similar conclusion can be expressed about the Lago Mare deposits exposed in the Níjar Basin where dinoflagellate cysts and calcareous nannofossils have not been recorded in the lowermost whitish clayey layer. And yet, calcareous nannofossils have been recorded

at the base of W2 and W3 (Fig. 4B; Table 1), that allows to discard a preservation or taphonomic bias between these identical facies. In fact, as proposed by [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF] and [START_REF] Popescu | Earliest Zanclean age for the Colombacci and uppermost Di tetto formations of the "latest Messinian" northern Apennines: New palaeoenvironmental data from the Maccarone section (Marche Province, Italy)[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] This study allows us to complete the listing (Table 2) and distribution map (Fig. 12) of the three kinds of Lago Mare deposits (1, 2, and 3; Fig. 1) where the major change concerns the chronologic location of these deposits from eastern Andalusia (Lago Mare 3). Indeed, these Lago Mare deposits were previously reported as belonging to the Lago Mare 1 event (Clauzon et al., 2005: fig. 13). Our investigations establish that they are to be referred to the Lago Mare 3 event, a result which is in agreement with the previous assumptions made at Sorbas by Ott d"Estevou and [START_REF] Ott D"estevou | Le bassin de Sorbas -Tabernas[END_REF] and Níjar by [START_REF] Aguirre | The Messinian post-evaporitic deposits of the Gafares area (Almeria-Níjar basin, SE Spain). A new view of the "Lago-Mare" facies[END_REF]. A questionment persists for the Lago Mare deposits in the Bajo Segura Basin (sites Monforte, Colmenar, and Oami: locality 6 in Figure 12), only documented by ostracods, which is considered as laterally equivalent to gypsums [START_REF] Soria | La sedimentación de afinidad Lago Mare (Messiniense) y la transgresión del Plioceno en Alicante (Cuenca del Bajo Segura)[END_REF][START_REF] Soria | The Bajo Segura Basin (SE Spain) : implications for the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean margins[END_REF], i.e. to be ascribed to Lago Mare 1 (Fig. 5; Table 2). Here, the stratigraphic organisation described by [START_REF] Soria | La sedimentación de afinidad Lago Mare (Messiniense) y la transgresión del Plioceno en Alicante (Cuenca del Bajo Segura)[END_REF][START_REF] Soria | The Bajo Segura Basin (SE Spain) : implications for the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean margins[END_REF] is greatly similar to that observed near Malaga with, in addition, residual gypsums, the relationship of which with the Lago Mare deposits is unclear all the more so as layers with calcareous nannofossils of Zone NN12 are indicated below the gypsums [START_REF] Soria | The Bajo Segura Basin (SE Spain) : implications for the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean margins[END_REF]: figure 2).

The examination of Figure 12 -a surface geostrophic current ran along the Northwestern Mediterranean shoreline, as suggested by [START_REF] Suc | Transport of bisaccate coniferous fossil pollen grains to coastal sediments. An exemple from the earliest Pliocene Orb ria (Languedoc, southern France)[END_REF].

It can be considered that, fastly after the post-MSC marine reflooding, a marine thermohaline circulation almost similar to the present one became established, at least in the Western Mediterranean Basin [START_REF] Poulain | Surface Geostrophic Circulation of the Mediterranean Sea Derived from Drifter and Satellite Altimeter Data[END_REF]. Such a circulation seems to have benefited from an active incursion by Paratethyan waters [START_REF] Sprovieri | Ba/Ca evolution in water masses of the Mediterranean late Neogene[END_REF]. Seismic and stratigraphic analyses performed on Pliocene to Quaternary sequences [START_REF] Juan | Contourite sedimentation in the Alboran Sea: Plio-Quaternary evolution[END_REF] showed that since the opening of the Gibraltar Strait, the circulation model of the Alboran Sea is quite similar to the present one. After the Zanclean reflooding, sedimentation was dominated by contourite deposition locally interrupted by turbiditic fans and slope deposits [START_REF] Juan | Contourite sedimentation in the Alboran Sea: Plio-Quaternary evolution[END_REF]. A different and less intensive current pattern before the peak of the MSC might explain the weakness of the influx of Paratethyan surface waters into the Western Mediterranean. The Lago Mare 2 episode appears insufficiently documented, especially regarding the contribution of dinoflagellate cysts and calcareous nannoplankton. Accordingly, its understanding cannot be considered as having been achieved.

Conclusion

Owing to new micropaleontological findings and stratigraphic onshore-offshore analysis, we revised in detail the age and depositional environment of Lago Mare [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Correlations with the 18O curve from Site 982 from the benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides kullenbergi [START_REF] Hodell | Correlation of late Miocene to early Pliocene sequences between the Mediterranean and North Atlantic[END_REF] on which has been established and adjusted the global sea level curve from [START_REF] Miller | A 180-Million-Year Record of Sea Level and Ice Volume Variations[END_REF]. Relationships with the Eastern Paratethys are indicated by double arrows [START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF][START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Chronology is from [START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] and [START_REF] Manzi | Age refinement of the Messinian salinity crisis onset in the Mediterranean[END_REF]. Molluscs: Dr, Dreissenids; L, Lymnocardiids; O, Ostracods; D, Dinoflagellate cysts; F, Foraminifers; N, Calcareous nannofossils.

Fig. 2 :

 2 Fig. 2: General location maps. A, Studied area; B, Onshore geological sketch of the northern Alboran Sea with the studied areas (1, Río Mendelín and El Túnel near Malaga; 2, Zorreras near Sorbas; 3, Gafares near Níjar). Thick lines point out the seismic profiles shown in Figures 9A and 9B within the available seismic database used for the 3D reconstruction in Figure 9C; C, Location map and geological map of the area northward of Malaga.The geological map is from Estévez[START_REF] Estévez González | Malaga -Torremolinos[END_REF]. Boxes indicate the studied sections (Río Mendelín and El Túnel) with the corresponding figures.

Fig. 4 :

 4 Fig. 4: Lago Mare deposits in the region of Almería. A, View of the Zorreras section, near Sorbas. B, View of the Gafares section, near Níjar. W1, W2, W3: whitish clayey layers; 1, 2, 3: location of the studied sample

Fig. 6 :

 6 Fig. 6: Photographs of some specimens of Galeacysta etrusca recorded in the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section: views c, d and f are from sample e; views g and h are from sample f; views a, b and e are from sample 6. View a, note the occurrence of a cyst of Pediastrum close to G. etrusca. Scale bar: 20 m.

Fig. 7 :

 7 Fig. 7: Photographs of some specimens of Ceratolithus acutus (crossed Nichols) recorded in the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section: a and b, sample 5; c, sample 6.

Fig. 8 :

 8 Fig. 8: The Gilbert-type fan delta of the Guadalmedina River (Malaga). A, Detailed view of the Messinian Erosional Surface separating the Gilbert-type fan delta deposits from the metamorphic basement. B, Photograph of a part of view C at greater magnification. C, View of the proximal part of the Gilbert-type fan delta showing (1) the coarse blocks and the conglomeratic to sandy foreset beds overlying the Messinian Erosional Surface (MES) and the metaporphic basement, and (2) the sampled bottomset beds. D, Panoramic view of the Río Mendelín section

  Such a datation of the post-MSC marine reflooding suffers from an insufficient precision because (1) samples of both sections have not been studied at an appropriate resolution, and (2) calcareous nannofossils have not been searched out. Moreover, it has recently been highlighted that (1) the date of the lowest occurrence of H. (G.) margaritae in the Mediterranean is somewhat inconsistent(Fig. 1;[START_REF] Lourens | The Neogene period[END_REF] Clauzon et al., revised), and (2) the right biostratigraphic marker of the post-MSC marine reflooding is the calcareous nannofossil Ceratolithus acutus which is generally recorded in the Mediterranean sections below H. (G.) margaritae. The post-MSC marine reflooding is coeval from the basin to the margins, i.e. it occurred in the latest Messinian according to our results (those presented here and from many other Mediterranean localities: Melinte-Dobrinescu et al.

Fig. 9 :

 9 Fig. 9: Morphology of the Messinian Erosional Surface in the area of Malaga, from land to the Alboran Basin. A1 and A2, Offshore non interpreted and interpreted seismic profile EAS-7, respectively; B1 and B2, Offshore non interpreted and interpreted seismic profile EAS-82, respectively; C, Reconstructed paleo-bathymetry of the Messinian Erosional Surface, obtained from seismic data interpolation.

  Río Mendelín Lago MareAccording to[START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Messinian Lago-Mare deposits near the Strait of Gibraltar (Malaga Basin, S Spain)[END_REF], the Pliocene deposits of the northern area of Malaga fill a valley cut within the Betic metamorphic basement that we undoubtedly ascribe to the peak of the MSC (Fig.2C). Based on micropaleontological and stratigraphic analyses, we have shown that the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section also belong to the submarine part of a Gilbert-type fan delta, and more precisely of a tributary of the Río Guadalmedina.[START_REF] Guerra-Merchán | Caracterización de la sedimentación Lago Mare (Messiniense terminal) y de la transgresión del comienzo del Plioceno en la cuenca de Málaga (Cordillera Bética)[END_REF], 2010) indicate an erosional truncation, marked by a conglomeratic accumulation, which separates their Pl-1 Unit (dated as Zanclean) from the underlying Lago Mare Unit, interpreted as late Messinian. This truncation is well-observed in Figure 3A and clearly separates the yellowish sediments from the underlying reddish ones in Figure 3B. Because of the occurrence of some normal faults in the Lago Mare deposits (see Fig. 3A, B), Guerra-Merchán et al. (

Fig. 10 :

 10 Fig. 10: Submarine erosional morphologies affecting bottomset and foreset beds of Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas in Southern France. A, General view of the Saint-Isidore quarry (Nice area); B, Saint-Isidore: detail of an erosional contact; C, General view of the Pichegu quarry (Arles area).

Fig. 11 :

 11 Fig. 11: Reconstructed paleogeographic and sedimentological evolution of the area northward of Malaga during and after the peak of the MSC (see Fig. 1 for the time schedule). A, At the time of the Mediterranean desiccation (5.600 Ma) when Río Guadalmedina and Río Mendelín cut their valley; B, When the Mediterranean basin was reflooded by marine waters transforming the fluvial valleys into marine rias (5.460 Ma), allowing the onset of Gilbert-type fan delta progradation; C, During a slight sea-level fall at ca. 5.360 Ma leading a bay paleogeography in the Río Mendelín ria with occurrence of some lagoons where molluscs of Paratethyan-type developed, the shells of which deposited in the bottomset beds; D, During the following sea-level rise (at ca. 5.350-5.332 Ma) resulting in increased development of Gilbert-type fan deltas and clayey bottomset beds affected by submarine erosion.

  Fig. 12; see Table2for references), to which we must add deposits from the Dacic Basin

Fig. 12 :

 12 Fig. 12: Selected localities in the Mediterranean and Eastern Paratethys illustrating the three Lago Mare events. The probable gateway between the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Paratethys is indicated by a grey double arrow. Localities from West to East (references for the Mediterranean localities with Lago Mare biofacies are given in Table2): 1, RíoMendelín; 2, Zorreras; 3, Gafares; 4, Cuevas del Almanzora; 5, Site 978;6, Monforte, Colmenar, Oami; 7, Papiol; 8, Site 124 ; 9, Site 975; 10, Site 372; 11, Théziers; 12, 13, 14, Allex; 15, Sioneri; 16, Casabianda; 17, Djebel Herageg; 18, Torre Sterpi; 19, Site 653; 20, Site 132; 21, Cava Serredi; 22, Monteglino; 23, Monticino; 24, Site 974; 25, Pomarance; 26, Eraclea Minoa; 27, Maccarone; 28, Capo Rossello; 29, Pasquasia; 30, Ancone; 31, Civitella del Tronto; 32, Vizzini; 33, Zinga; 34, Site 374; 35, Kavvadades; 36, Agios Sostis; 37, Turnu Severin; 38, Hinova; 39, Gabrovačka Reka; 40, Drăcevo; 41, Ţicleni; 42, Trilophos; 43, Badislava; 44, Souvala; 45, Skini; 46, Khairetiana; 47, Doiceşti; 48, Bizdidel; 49, Mesi; 50, Site 969;51, Faneromeni; 52, Călugăreni; 53, Argova Valley; 54, Valea Vacii; 55, Intepe; 56, Site 129;[START_REF] Torres-Roldán | The tectonic subdivision of the Betic Zone (Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain); its significance and one possible geotectonic scenario for the westernmost Alpine Belt[END_REF] Yalakdere; 58, Site 380; 59, Site 376; 60, Site 967; 61, Site 968; 62, Giolou; 63, Kerc.

  , the record of Paratethyan dinoflagellate cysts is the actual chronologically well-constrained signature of the Paratethyan water influx (as samples a, b, e, f, h and 6 from the Río Mendelín section). The record of Paratethyan molluscs and/or ostracods constitutes sometimes a coeval indication of Lago Mare conditions (as in the Río Mendelín section) or, more often, as a slightly postponed and more continental archive (lagoons) of influx by Paratethyan waters and organisms (see also: Aguirre and Sánchez-Almazo, 2004). 5.4. Distribution of Lago Mare deposits in the Mediterranean region

  points out that Lago Mare 3 episode has the largest Mediterranean extension to the West (except the enigmatic locality 6, see above), at least up to Malaga, especially concentrated along the northern coastlines. Such a geographic distribution of the Lago Mare 3 localities is striking. This means that, in the Early Pliocene:-a significant input of brackish Paratethyan surface waters flowed into the Mediterranean Basin, as suggested by[START_REF] Sprovieri | Ba/Ca evolution in water masses of the Mediterranean late Neogene[END_REF], probably through the Balkan Corridor (Fig.12) proposed by[START_REF] Clauzon | Influence of the Mediterranean sea-level changes over the Dacic Basin (Eastern Paratethys) in the Late Neogene. The Mediterranean Lago Mare facies deciphered[END_REF],[START_REF] Popescu | Galeacysta etrusca complex, dinoflagellate cyst marker of Paratethyan influxes into the Mediterranean Sea before and after the peak of the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF],[START_REF] Suc | The Messinian Salinity Crisis in the dacic basin (SW Romania) and early Zanclean Mediterranean -Paratethys high sealevel connection[END_REF] and[START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF] ;

  deposits for three localities in southern Spain (Malaga, Sorbas and Níjar) and the following conclusions were established: 1) North of Malaga, the Lago Mare exposed along the Río Mendelín results from the third episode of invasion of Paratethyan organisms into the Mediterranean, corresponding to a two-way water exchange at high sea level between the basins (Lago Mare 3). The paleontological interpretations have been enhanced by investigations into the Paratethyan and Mediterranean dinoflagellate cysts and calcareous nannofossils. Age constraints have been refined by nannofossil biostratigraphy and onshore-offshore identification of the Messinian Erosional Surface overlain by a Gilbert-type fan delta. A paleogeographic and sedimentary reconstruction of the Malaga area for the time-interval 5.600-5.332 Ma shows that a minor fall in sea level facilitated the development of the Lago Mare biofacies after the marine reflooding ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis. 2) In the Sorbas and Níjar basins, the Lago Mare deposits belong to the continental sedimentary unit overlying the marine sediments of the Mediterranean reflooding, yet still affected by marine incursions at Níjar, i.e. in a more coastal location. They also illustrate the Lago Mare 3 episode, but their biofacies lacks Paratethyan dinoflagellate cysts.3) In addition to their chronostratigraphic distinction, this paleoenvironmental criterion separates the Malaga Lago Mare from the Sorbas and Níjar ones. Indeed, only a Lago Mare biofacies including Paratethyan dinoflagellate cysts may be considered as the precise influx level of Paratethyan waters. In contrast, those Lago Mare biofacies only composed of Paratethyan molluscs and/or ostracods must be regarded as the marginalmarine (lagoonal) signature subsequent to the invasive episode.Our data and resulting conclusions thus evidence a new environmental, sedimentological and stratigraphic context for the Lago Mare deposits of the peripheral basins of the northern Alboran Sea.An up-to-date review of the Lago Mare evidence confirms that three invasive episodes occurred within the time-interval 5.700-5.300 Ma and supports the conclusion that the concept of a unique chronostratigraphic unit must be abandoned. The geographic distribution of Lago Mare 3 suggests that the modern pattern of Mediterranean currents took place after the marine reflooding at 5.460 Ma. At last, the petroleum interest of Lago Mare 3 is reaffirmed.

Fig. 1 :

 1 Fig. 1: Chronotratigraphy of the events related to the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the peripheral and central Mediterranean basins: deposition of evaporites, subaerial and marine erosion, Lago Mare[START_REF] Bache | A two-step process for the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis[END_REF]. Correlations with the 18O curve from

Fig. 2 :

 2 Fig. 2: General location maps. A, Studied area; B, Onshore geological sketch of the northern Alboran Sea with the studied areas (1, Río Mendelín and El Túnel near Malaga; 2, Zorreras near Sorbas; 3, Gafares near Níjar). Thick lines point out the seismic profiles shown in Figures 9A and 9B within the available seismic database used for the 3D reconstruction in Figure 9C; C, Location map and geological map of the area northward of Malaga.The geological map is from Estévez González and Chamón Cobos (1978). Boxes indicate the studied sections (Río Mendelín and El Túnel) with the corresponding figures.

Fig. 3 :

 3 Fig. 3: The studied Río Mendelín section. A, Photograph of the sampled section; B, Log of the section with location of samples 1 to 14 (distance between two successive samples is indicated in Table 1); C, Photograph of the marine-continental transition; D, Log of the marine-continental transition; E, Zoomed photograph of the continuously sampled interval between samples 5 and 6 (samples a-j; distance between two successive samples: 10 cm).

Fig. 4 :

 4 Fig. 4: Lago Mare deposits in the region of Almería. A, View of the Zorreras section, near Sorbas. B, View of the Gafares section, near Níjar. W1, W2, W3: whitish clayey layers; 1, 2, 3: location of the studied sample

Fig. 5 :

 5 Fig. 5: Dinoflagellate cysts recorded in the Río Mendelín section, grouped according to their ecological significance. Synthetic diagram shows the relative abundance of the groups: 1, marine taxa (white line separates stenohaline species to the left from euryhaline taxa to the right); 2, brackish taxa (black line separates Galeacysta etrusca to the left from the other taxa to the right); 3, indeterminable plus indeterminate cysts; 4, freshwater taxa. Spiniferites spp. are indicated both as marine and brackish taxa. They are mostly made of fragments which prohibit a species ascribtion but can be ecologically classified according to their morphology.

Fig. 6 :

 6 Fig. 6: Photographs of some specimens of Galeacysta etrusca recorded in the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section: views c, d and f are from sample e; views g and h are from sample f; views a, b and e are from sample 6. View a, note the occurrence of a cyst of Pediastrum close to G. etrusca. Scale bar: 20 m.

Fig. 7 :

 7 Fig. 7: Photographs of some specimens of Ceratolithus acutus (crossed Nichols) recorded in the Lago Mare deposits of the Río Mendelín section: a and b, sample 5; c, sample 6. Scale bar: 5 m.

Fig. 8 :

 8 Fig. 8: The Gilbert-type fan delta of the Guadalmedina River (Malaga). A, Detailed view of the Messinian Erosional Surface separating the Gilbert-type fan delta deposits from the metamorphic basement. B, Photograph of a part of view C at greater magnification. C, View of the proximal part of the Gilbert-type fan delta showing (1) the coarse blocks and the conglomeratic to sandy foreset beds overlying the Messinian Erosional Surface (MES) and the metaporphic basement, and (2) the sampled bottomset beds. D, Panoramic view of the Río Mendelín section

Fig. 10 :

 10 Fig. 10: Submarine erosional morphologies affecting bottomset and foreset beds of Zanclean Gilbert-type fan deltas in Southern France. A, General view of the Saint-Isidore quarry (Nice area); B, Saint-Isidore: detail of an erosional contact; C, General view of the Pichegu quarry (Arles area).

Fig. 11 :

 11 Fig. 11: Reconstructed paleogeographic and sedimentological evolution of the area northward of Malaga during and after the peak of the MSC (see Fig. 1 for the time schedule). A, At the time of the Mediterranean desiccation (5.600 Ma) when Río Guadalmedina and Río Mendelín cut their valley; B, When the Mediterranean basin was reflooded by marine waters transforming the fluvial valleys into marine rias (5.460 Ma), allowing the onset of Gilbert-type fan delta progradation; C, During a slight sea-level fall at ca. 5.360 Ma leading a bay paleogeography in the Río Mendelín ria with occurrence of some lagoons where molluscs of Paratethyan-type developed, the shells of which deposited in the bottomset beds; D, During the following sea-level rise (at ca. 5.350-5.332 Ma) resulting in increased development of Gilbert-type fan deltas and clayey bottomset beds affected by submarine erosion.

Table 1 :

 1 Calcareous nannofossils recorded in the Río Mendelín, El Túnel, Zorreras (Sorbas) and Gafares (Níjar) sections. Location of samples in Figure 4. 13 Table 2: Mediterranean localities with Paratethyan-type organisms corresponding to Lago Mare deposits located in Figure 12.

  The foraminiferal assemblage in samples a to f shows a poor to diversified marine assemblage composed amongst others

	of	Globigerina	decoraperta,	G.	praebulloides,	Globigerinita	glutinata,
	Globoturborotalita (Globigerina) nepenthes, Neogloboquadrina acostaensis (sinistral
	and dextral coiling) and N. incompta. Only the Globoturborotalita (Globigerina)
	nepenthes species (recorded in samples a and f) has biostratigraphic significance (ranging
	from 11.63 to 4.37 Ma, i.e. from latest Serravallian to mid-Zanclean; Lourens et al.,
	2004).

Table 1 :

 1 Calcareous nannofossils recorded in the Río Mendelín, El Túnel, Zorreras (Sorbas) and Gafares (Níjar) sections. Location of samples in Figure 4.

Table 2 :

 2 Mediterranean localities with Paratethyan-type organisms corresponding to Lago Mare deposits located in Figure12.

	1

Messinian Salinity Crisis = MSC; Messinian Erosional Surface = MES.

Acknowledgements

Field trips and micropaleontological analyses have been supported by the CIFRE PhD grant N° 584/2010 (TOTAL/UPMC) and by the CNRS/INSU "Actions Marges" Program. The authors gratefully aknowledge Gemma Ercilla (ICM-CSIC, Barcelona) for constructive discussion. We also warmly thank the ICM-CSIC laboratory in Barcelona for multi-and single-channel seismic profiles (available http://www.icm.csic.es/geo/gma/SurveyMaps/ and http://www.igme.es/internet/sistemas_infor/BASESINTERNET/sigeof.htm).

We particularly thank M.J. Head for his friendly review of the manuscript and edition of the English, two anonymous reviewers and I. Csato, Associate Editor of the journal, who significantly contributed to improve the mansucript.