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The late Messinian Sorbas Member, up to 75 m thick, consists in it;; lype area of a parasequence sel of three prograding coastal barriers (sequences I-III). associated with lagoon and washover sedimenlS. Around the town of Sorbas these strata can be studied exceptionally wel! due 10 absence of burrowing by raised Messinian salinities and exposure along a network of up to 30 m deep canyons. Fifteen vertical sections were logged and careí'ully correlated. This permits to reconstruct and discuss pattems of relative sea-Ievel movements between decímetres. up to 15 m within a parasequence. Excellent examples oí' non-tidal transgressive facies are characterized by lagoon and washover sedimenls instead oí' the usual combinatíon oí' wa,hover and tidal deposits (channel and ftood-tidal delta). Implications í'or the sandstone connectivity are given. The lower two sequences are deposited in ,J, relatively tectonically enhanced wedge-shaped accommodation space. They show both fining-up, deepening sequences, followed by prograding eoarsening-up shoaling sequences and can be compared lO the c1assical parasequences of lhe Westem Interior Basin (USA). Progradation of sequence II was intemlpted by a major slide event (most likely triggered by an earthquake), which caused more than 400 m seaward slumping of a stretch of 1 km of coasta! sands. The architecture of sequence lIT Is more complex due to limited accommodation spaee characterístic for the late híghstand, so tha! this sett'.ng was very sensitive to sea-Ievel tluctuations. This resulted in an intricate pattem of juxtaposed and superposed lagoonal muds, washover üms and swash zones. So-called 'stranded' coast;:J barriers occur, which were lef! behind after seaward Jump of the coastline over more than 1.5 km during forced regression. The pattem oí' reconstructed sea-Ievel positions is weIl comparable to the sequential partem shown by the correlated equivalent, along the northem basin margin, which belong to the so-called Terminal Carbonate Complex. The problem of ranking the complex sequence III as one or more parasequences and it, consequences for cyclostratigraphy are shortly discussed. Two models of washover formation are given, respectively during more rapid and more slow sea-Ievel rise. The intluence oí' synsedimentary folding on the location of barriers is discussed and also the source arca of extra-and intraclasts supplied to barriers and washovers. After deposition of ¡he Sorbas Member the sea withdrew from the Sorbas Basin, probably as a result of the majar downdrop in lhe Mediterranean at the maximum i,olation during the Salinity Crisis. It 15 suggested that the semi-enclosed selting of the basin resulted only in Iímited. localized eros ion, in contrast to the deeper adjacent Vera Basin, which was more open to the Mediterranean.

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