Mediterranean Sea 6 Million Years Ago

Post created by ConstructionFrosty77

The map above shows what the Mediterranean Sea might have looked like 6 million years ago. The creator of the map explains that:

Marine scientists have uncovered evidence of one of the largest floods in Earth’s history in the central Mediterranean seafloor.

The flood, known as the Zanclean flood, is thought to have ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC), a period during which the Mediterranean Sea became partially dried up.

Due to shrinkage of its connection with the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea was transformed into a giant saline lake that was partially evaporated by the dry climate of the region, six million years ago.

This massive desiccation left a deep dry basin, reaching 3 to 5 km (1.9 to 3.1 mi) deep below normal sea level, with a few hypersaline pockets similar to today’s Dead Sea.

As a first approximation, using the dry adiabatic lapse rate of around 10 °C (18 °F) per kilometer, the maximum possible temperature of an area 4 km (2.5 mi) below sea level would be about 40 °C (72 °F) warmer than it would be at sea level.

Under this extreme assumption, maxima would be near 80 °C (176 °F) at the lowest points of the dry abyssal plain, permitting no permanent life but extremophiles.

Further, the altitude 3–5 km (2–3 mi) below sea level would result in 1.45 to 1.71 atm (1102 to 1300 mmHg) air pressure.

Welcome to Mediterranean hell!

This all ended with the The Zanclean flood, 5.33 million years ago, which is thought to have refilled the Mediterranean.

It may have had “a peak discharge of over 100,000,000 cubic metres per second (3.5×109 cu ft/s) occurred with water velocities of over 40 metres per second (130 ft/s); such flow rates are about a thousand times larger than the discharge of the Amazon River.”

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