Insights into the Middle–Late Miocene palaeoceanographic development of Cyprus (eastern Mediterranean) from a new δ18O and δ13C stable isotope composite record

Abstract

The Middle to Late Miocene was a time of significant global climate change. In the eastern Mediterranean region, these climatic changes coincided with important tectonic events, which resulted in changes to the organisation of oceanic gateways, altering oceanic circulation patterns. The Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO) is regarded as the most recent CO2-driven warming event in Earth’s climate history and has been proposed as an analogue for future climate change. We present a ca. 12 Ma record of oxygen and carbon stable isotopes from the island of Cyprus to help constrain the nature and extent of Miocene palaeoceanographic changes in the eastern Mediterranean region. Cyprus exposes Neogene deep-sea pelagic sedimentary rocks which are suitable for stable isotope studies. Our composite geochemical record integrates data from the Lower to Upper Miocene succession at Kottaphi Hill along the northern margin of the Troodos ophiolite, with the Upper Miocene succession at Lapatza Hill in the north of Cyprus. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy reveals that the composite record spans the Miocene Climatic Optimum’s onset to the beginning of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). The new stable isotopic record reveals a complex interplay between global climate change and regional to local tectonic changes. In the earlier part of the record, global climate changes dominated; however, by the end of the Late Miocene, tectonic events culminated in isolation of the Mediterranean basins, resulting in a deviation from global open-ocean trends. Strontium (Sr) isotope analysis is used primarily to help constrain the age of the Miocene successions sampled and implies changes in the connectivity of the eastern Mediterranean basins during the Late Miocene. The combined data provide a useful reference for oceanographic changes in the eastern Mediterranean basins during the Miocene, compared to the global oceans.