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listopencil · 03-26-2018, 05:21 PM

A Megaflood-Powered Mile-High Waterfall Refilled the Mediterranean

Buried sediments near Sicily suggest water rushed into the sea’s partially dried-out eastern basin at speeds reaching 100 miles per hour

By Katherine Kornei on March 26, 2018

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...rranean-video/

Six million years ago the Mediterranean Sea was a very different place than it is today. Plate tectonics had closed the Strait of Gibraltar separating modern-day Spain and Morocco, leaving the Mediterranean cut off from the Atlantic Ocean. The newly enclosed sea succumbed to evaporation, its water level falling by thousands of meters, turning it into a desertlike environment pockmarked with shallow pools as salty as today’s Dead Sea. One hypothesis suggests a megaflood rapidly refilled the Mediterranean. Now, a study of buried ocean sediments near Sicily shows this flood may have washed all the way into the sea’s partially filled eastern basin via a waterfall about 1,500 meters high. Floods have punctuated the Earth’s history, but the “Zanclean megaflood”—so named for the geologic age during which it occurred (from 5.3 million to 3.6 million years ago)—is thought to be the largest ever, the new research, published in January in Scientific Reports reveals. These findings build on a 2009 Nature study, which showed water violently rushed into the desiccated Mediterranean after shifting tectonic plates reopened the Strait of Gibraltar. The deluge carved a 200-kilometer-long channel along the seafloor as it filled the western part of the basin.

03-26-2018, 05:21 PM	#2725
listopencil Immanentize The Eschaton Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: In Partibus Infidelium Casino cash: $2225880	A Megaflood-Powered Mile-High Waterfall Refilled the Mediterranean Buried sediments near Sicily suggest water rushed into the sea’s partially dried-out eastern basin at speeds reaching 100 miles per hour By Katherine Kornei on March 26, 2018 https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...rranean-video/ Six million years ago the Mediterranean Sea was a very different place than it is today. Plate tectonics had closed the Strait of Gibraltar separating modern-day Spain and Morocco, leaving the Mediterranean cut off from the Atlantic Ocean. The newly enclosed sea succumbed to evaporation, its water level falling by thousands of meters, turning it into a desertlike environment pockmarked with shallow pools as salty as today’s Dead Sea. One hypothesis suggests a megaflood rapidly refilled the Mediterranean. Now, a study of buried ocean sediments near Sicily shows this flood may have washed all the way into the sea’s partially filled eastern basin via a waterfall about 1,500 meters high. Floods have punctuated the Earth’s history, but the “Zanclean megaflood”—so named for the geologic age during which it occurred (from 5.3 million to 3.6 million years ago)—is thought to be the largest ever, the new research, published in January in Scientific Reports reveals. These findings build on a 2009 Nature study, which showed water violently rushed into the desiccated Mediterranean after shifting tectonic plates reopened the Strait of Gibraltar. The deluge carved a 200-kilometer-long channel along the seafloor as it filled the western part of the basin. __________________ Good friends we have had, oh, good friends we've lost...along the way. In this great future, you can't forget your past. So dry your tears, I say.
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