On the Gulf of Lions margin, the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) event led to a significant and widespread erosion of the Miocene shelf and slope. It is thus difficult nowadays to restore the morphology of the margin at the beginning of the crisis, and to study the Middle-Upper Miocene series rarely preserved from erosion. In this study, thanks to the use of multichannel seismic reflection data from the Gulf of Lions western slope, it has been possible to image the Miocene slope deposits. Interpretation of the data reveals several diachronic sediment bodies just beneath the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. These bodies are related to slope erosional-depositional complexes, underlain by erosional unconformities outlined by seismic reflector truncations. They are... |