An international group of scientists from the US, UK and several other European countries has revealed how the prehistoric drought period in the Mediterranean ended. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Contact Earth and Environment (CEE).
Between 5.97 million and 5.33 million years ago, an event known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis occurred. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean Sea was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean and almost completely evaporated, resulting in the formation of huge salt deposits that changed the landscape of the region.
For many years, researchers believed that this dry period gradually ended and the Mediterranean was filled with water for 10 thousand years. The discovery in 2009 of an erosion channel stretching from Cadiz Bay to the Alboran Sea challenged this idea. The discovery pointed to a single large-scale event known as the Zanclean Megaflood that lasted between two and 16 years.
According to current estimates, the volume of water released during this massive flood ranged from 68 to 100 sverdrups (Sv). One Sv is equal to one million cubic meters of water per second.
The researchers studied more than 300 asymmetric, streamlined ridges in the corridor along the Sicilian Threshold, a submerged land passage that once separated the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean.
While taking samples from the ridges, the team discovered that they were covered with a layer of rocky debris. It contained materials washed from the side slopes of the ridges and the surrounding landscape. All this indicates the rapid nature of the bearings under the influence of tremendous force.
The team developed computer models of the megaflood to understand how water behaves. The simulation shows that the flood changed direction and intensified over time, reaching speeds of up to 32 meters per second, cutting deeper channels, eroding more material and transporting it longer distances.
Previous scientists I learned Cause of evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian salinity crisis.
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Source: Gazeta
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