A high-resolution integrated stratigraphy is presented for the Abad marls of the Sorbas and Nijar basins in SE Spain (preevaporitic
Messinian of the Western Mediterranean). Detailed cyclostratigraphic and biostratigraphic analyses of partially
overlapping subsections were needed to overcome stratigraphic problems in particular encountered at the complex transition
from the Lower to the Upper Abad. The resulting Abad composite section contains a continuous stratigraphic record from the
Tortonian/Messinian boundary up to the transition to the Messinian evaporites of the Yesares Member. All together, 18
calcareous plankton events were recognized which were shown to be synchronous throughout the Mediterranean by means
of detailed (bed-to-bed) cyclostratigraphic correlations. The magnetostratigraphy allowed the identification of the four
magnetic reversals of chron C3An in the Upper Abad. Details in the sedimentary cycle patterns allowed the Abad composite
to be astronomically calibrated. This calibration to the 658N summer insolation curve of solution La90(1,1) yielded astronomical
ages for all sedimentary cycles, calcareous plankton bioevents, ash layers and paleomagnetic reversals. Up to now, the Abad
composite is the only astronomically well-calibrated section that provided a reliable cyclostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy
and calcareous plankton biostratigraphy. As such it will serve as a reference section both for the pre-evaporite Messinian in the
Mediterranean as well as for the Messinian interval in the Astronomical Polarity Time Scale