Comments on “The Sdom evaporite formation in Israel and its relationship with the Messinian Salinity Crisis” by J. Charrach

Abstract

According to J. Charrach, the Sdom formation is a major non-marine evaporite sequence deposited during the climax of the Mediterranean Salinity Crisis (MSC). Hydrochemical studies, however, reveal that the evaporites of the Sdom and Zemah stratigraphic columns dominantly originate from evaporated Tethys seawater mixed with some local drainage water. The formation of evaporites in the northern and southern Inland Sea lasted about 2 Ma, a period that could only be pre-Messinian, i.e., most probably Tortonian.