Resultados paleoceanográficos deducidos a partir del contenido en diatomeas de los sedimentos siliceos miocenos («moronitas») en la Cuenca del Guadalquivir

Abstract

During a part of the Miocene (Langhian middle-middle Tortonian) diatom bearing sediments, named «moronitas», were deposited in the Guadalquivir Basin. This sedimentation was the result of a highly productive coastal upwelling regime in the area. At this time, the oceanic circulation in the «nord-betic strait» was under stuarine conditions and the nutrients carne from deep Atlantic currents. The intensity of the circulation of deep water in oceans is usually related to global climatic changes. Coastal upwelling is not an effective process to bring up nutrient-rich deep waters to the surface. A complex hidrological process must occur to bring up deep water firstly to intermediate leveIs and then the nutrients may be upwelled from subsurface waters. It is necessary to take into account local factors related to the basin morphology and the changes that it has gone through in arder to place the ancient upwelling centers in the basin.
The percentajes of the most common species (Crucidenticula nicobarica + Crucidenticula punctata, Denticulopsis hustedtii, Thalassionema nitzschioides, Thalassionema nitzschioides var. parva, Thalassiothrix longissima + Thalassionema bacillaris) and the biosilicic global content of the rocks has made possible the recognition of a change in the temperature of superficial waters and upwelling intensity in time.
The interpretation of the A..P.C. graphics gives a paleoecological significance to the A.P.C. first two factors. In this way different productivity situations in response to different locations and intensity of the ancient upwelling centers in time have been identified.