Theoretical refilling of the Mediterranean Sea between the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs
Artistic interpretation of the flooding of the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar Strait (A) and the Strait of Sicily (F) about 5.3 million years agoArtistic interpretation of the flooding of the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar StraitComputer simulation of the flooding of the Mediterranean through the Gibraltar Strait, with the vertical scale exaggerated for better visualization. The view in this image is from the southwest of Gibraltar, with the future Iberian Peninsula in the center-left, northwest Africa in the lower-right, and the British Isles in the upper-left corner.
The Zanclean flood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago.[1]
This flooding ended the Messinian salinity crisis and reconnected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, although it is possible that even before the flood there were partial connections to the Atlantic Ocean.[2] The re-connection marks the beginning of the Zanclean age which is the name given to the earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene.
According to this model, water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the dried up basin through the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar. Ninety percent of the Mediterranean Basin flooding occurred abruptly during a period estimated to have been between several months and two years, following low water discharges that could have lasted for several thousand years.[3] Sea level rise in the basin may have reached rates at times greater than ten metres per day (thirty feet per day). Based on the erosion features preserved until modern times under the Pliocene sediment, Garcia-Castellanos et al. estimate that water rushed down a drop of more than 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) with a maximum discharge of about 100 million cubic metres per second (3.5 billion cubic feet per second), about 1,000 times that of the present-day Amazon River. Studies of the underground structures at the Gibraltar Strait show that the flooding channel descended gradually toward the bottom of the basin rather than forming a steep waterfall.[4]
^Blanc, P.-L. (2002). "The opening of the Plio-Quaternary Gibraltar Strait: assessing the size of a cataclysm". Geodinamica Acta. 15 (5–6): 303–317. Bibcode:2002GeoAc..15..303B. doi:10.1016/S0985-3111(02)01095-1.
^Efe, Recep (17 March 2014). Environment and Ecology in the Mediterranean Region II. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-4438-5773-4.
The Zancleanflood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago. This flooding ended the Messinian salinity...
The Zanclean is the lowest stage or earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma (million years...
spilling over a dividing ridge into a landlocked basin (e.g., Zancleanflood and Black Sea flood). A smaller scale example would be the Pantai Remis landslide...
Weichselian Glaciation Zancleanflood – Theoretical refilling of the Mediterranean Sea between the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, flooding of the Mediterranean...
years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zancleanflood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of...
epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma (million years ago). It ended with the Zancleanflood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment samples from below...
a marine sedimentary unit of Lower Pliocene (Zanclean) age, which were deposited after the Zancleanflood, in which the Mediterranean refilled after having...
Mediterranean refilled at the Miocene–Pliocene boundary, in an event called the Zancleanflood. The apes first evolved and diversified during the early Miocene (Aquitanian...
Baltic flood may refer to: The Zancleanflood that ended the Messinian salinity crisis 5.33 million years ago The All Saints' Flood of 1304 The 1872 Baltic...
courses of rivers creating rias. This happened in the Nile during the Zancleanflood when its lower course became, in a relatively short time, a large estuary...
(Camarinal Sill), at a depth of 280 m. Its formation is linked to the Zancleanflood and the termination of the Messinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean...
Peninsula, letting Nuralagus's ancestor colonize the area. The subsequent Zancleanflood 5.3 million years ago then returned the Mediterranean to its original...
filling of the Mediterranean, based on the geological event known as the ZancleanFlood, form a Wagnerian climax to The Golden Torc, in which aliens and time-traveling...
strait was formed, possibly through erosion by inflowing waters of the Zancleanflood. It vanished under the surface approximately 12,000 years ago due to...
Former piece of oceanic crust that is seen as part of the Tethys Ocean Zancleanflood – Theoretical refilling of the Mediterranean Sea between the Miocene...
was completely reestablished through the Strait of Gibraltar by the Zancleanflood, and has remained open ever since. The erosion produced by the incoming...
region Mediterranean wine climate MISTRALS Ottoman Empire Phoenicia Zancleanflood Portugal, Jordan and Iraq Natura 2000 in the Mediterranean Region (PDF)...
isolated on the island when the Mediterranean refilled as result of the ZancleanFlood around 5.3 million years ago, at the beginning of the Pliocene. Nesiotites...
split. c. 5.5 Ma – Appearance of the genus Ardipithecus c. 5.33 Ma – Zancleanflood: the Strait of Gibraltar opens for the last (and current) time and water...
still running spring. The creation of the Mediterranean Sea during the ZancleanFlood left a deep, spring-fed, freshwater lake that overflowed via a small...
the Mediterranean Sea experienced a near complete drought. During the ZancleanFlood that followed, two deep channels (Canal Norte and Sur) were scoured...
following the reopening of the Straits of Gibraltar and the resulting Zancleanflood which refilled the Mediterranean approximately 5.3 million years ago...
lizards, especially during the time period preceding and around the Zancleanflood. Podarcis virescens have been used in studies on lizard body temperatures...
Representative continental flood basalts (also known as traps) and oceanic plateaus, together forming a listing of large igneous provinces: List of Oceanic...
(1749–1817) Neptunism theory in which all rocks precipitated out of a single flood. A competing theory, Plutonism, was developed by Anton Moro (1687–1784)...
Messinian salinity crisis or dry Mediterranean. It was replenished with the Zancleanflood which raised the world-wide sea level 10 meters or 33 feet. Period:...
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