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A geologist riddle #7

An "impossible" outcrop - the rocks where already recognized in 1867, but only a discovery in 1970 revealed an incredible environmental change - what is the significance of this site?
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5 comments:

  1. LockwoodMarch 7, 2011 at 12:36 PM

    Is that the Gubbio layer in Italy? (What I learned to call the K/T boundary, now K/P or something) It doesn't quite look right...

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  2. Silver FoxMarch 7, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    I'd have to guess K/T boundary, but wouldn't venture where. Looks a lot like rocks on the Colorado Plateau, in general.

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  3. David BressanMarch 8, 2011 at 3:12 AM

    It´s in Italy, and even it is a chronostratigraphic boundary, but much later than C/P - I added a photo with an important detail and would say that there is a connection to modern Death Valley...

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  4. Le NaturalisteMarch 8, 2011 at 6:05 AM

    The important detail seems to be something like evaporite, isn't it ?
    So maybe the "incredible environmental change" discovered in 1970 (with Leg 13 of the DSDP)is the Messinian salinity crisis, at the end of Miocene.
    Ph

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  5. One Voice for ChangeSeptember 25, 2012 at 1:32 PM

    The environemntal change is the complete evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea due to the closure of the strait of Gibraltar. How you rock guys figured out it was a few million yerars ago is beyond me.

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