The Messinian Salinity Crisis, also referred to as the Messinian Event, is a period when the Mediterranean Sea evaporated partly or completely dry during the Messinian period of the Miocene epoch, approximately 6 million years ago. Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Messinian period is the last part of the Miocene epoch. ... The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ...

Discovery

In 1961, seismic surveying of the Mediterranean basin revealed a geological feature some 100-200 metres below the seafloor. This feature, dubbed the M reflector, closely followed the contours of the present seafloor, suggesting that it was laid down evenly and consistently at some point in the past. Drilling experiments, conducted a decade later from the Glomar Challenger under the supervision of head scientist Kenneth J. Hsu during Leg 13 of the Deep Sea Drilling Program, revealed the nature of the M reflector, a layer of evaporites up to 3 kilometres thick. The 120m long Glomar Challenger was a deep sea research and Scientific drilling vessel for marine geology studies. ... Kenneth J. Hsu (许靖华, Pinyin: Xǔ Jìnghuá) (born July 7, 1929)，is a scientist and geologist. ... The Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) was an ocean drilling project running from 1968 to 1983. ... A sample of evaporite material Evaporites (IPA: ) are water-soluble, mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. ...

Evidence

Sediment samples from below the deep seafloor of the Mediterranean Sea, which include evaporite minerals, soils, and fossil plants, show that about 5.9 million years ago in the late Miocene period the precursors of the modern Strait of Gibraltar closed tight and the Mediterranean Sea evaporated into a deep dry basin with a bottom at some places 2 to 3 miles (3.2 to 4.9 km) below the world ocean level.^[1] Even now the Mediterranean is saltier than the North Atlantic because of its near isolation by the Straits of Gibraltar and its high rate of evaporation. A sample of evaporite material Evaporites (IPA: ) are water-soluble, mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. ... Three small ammonite fossils, each approximately 1. ... The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Sea water is water from a sea or ocean. ... For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

If the Strait of Gibraltar closes again, which is likely to happen in the near geological future (though extremely distant on a human time scale), and the Suez Canal closes, the Mediterranean would evaporate dry in about a thousand years. The table and timeline of geologic periods presented here is in accordance with the dates and nomenclature proposed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. ... Ships moored at El Ballah during transit Egypt: Site of Suez Canal (top). ...

The first solid evidence for the ancient desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea came in the summer of 1970, when geologists aboard the Deep Sea Drilling Program drillship Glomar Challenger brought up drill cores containing arroyo gravels and red and green floodplain silts; and gypsum, anhydrite, rock salt, and various other evaporite minerals that often form from drying of brine or seawater, including in a few places potash where the last bitter waters dried up. One drill core contained a wind-blown cross-bedded deposit of deep-sea foraminiferal ooze that had dried into dust and been blown about on the hot dry abyssal plain by sandstorms and ended up in a brine lake. These layers alternated with layers containing marine fossils, indicating a succession of drying and flooding periods. Other evidence of drying comes from the remains of many (now submerged) canyons that were cut into the sides of the dry Mediterranean basin by rivers flowing down to the abyssal plain. For example, the Nile cut its bed down to several hundred feet below sea level at Aswan and 8000 feet (2,400 m) below sea level under Cairo. Fossilized cracks were found where muddy sediment had dried and cracked in the sunlight and drought. The area underwent repeated flooding and desiccation over 700,000 years. About 5.4 million years ago at the start of the Pliocene period the barrier at the Strait of Gibraltar broke, permanently reflooding the basin. Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. ... The 120m long Glomar Challenger was a deep sea research and Scientific drilling vessel for marine geology studies. ... An arroyo is a dry creek bed or gulch that fills with water either seasonally, or after a heavy rain. ... Gypsum is a very soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. // Heating gypsum to between 100°C and 150°C (302°F) partially dehydrates the mineral by driving off exactly 75% of the water contained in its chemical structure. ... Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. ... Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride, NaCl, commonly known as rock salt. ... A sample of evaporite material Evaporites (IPA: ) are water-soluble, mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. ... Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. ... Potash Potash (or carbonate of potash) is an impure form of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) mixed with other potassium salts. ... Orders Allogromiida Carterinida Fusulinida - extinct Globigerinida Involutinida - extinct Lagenida Miliolida Robertinida Rotaliida Silicoloculinida Spirillinida Textulariida incertae sedis    Xenophyophorea    Reticulomyxa The Foraminifera, or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists with reticulating pseudopods, fine strands that branch and merge to form a dynamic net. ... Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. ... Abyssal plains are flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. ... The Nile (Arabic: ‎, translit: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river, though not the most voluminous, in the world. ... Aswan (Arabic: أسوان Aswān) (, population 200,000) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. ... The metre, or meter (U.S.), is a measure of length. ... Nickname: Al Qahirah (The Triumphant City) Cairos location in Egypt Coordinates: Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area    - City 210 km²  - Metro 1,492 km² Population (2005)  - City 7,438,376  - Density 35,420/km²  - Urban 10,834,495  - Metro 15,200,000 Time zone EET (UTC+2)  - Summer (DST... The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts) is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5. ...

Some of these Messinian deposits have since been pushed up onto land during later orogenies in Messina (Sicily), northeast Libya, Italy, and southern Spain. Orogeny (Greek for mountain generating) is the process of mountain building, and may be studied as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event and a chronological event, in that orogenic events cause distinctive structural phenomena and related tectonic activity, affect certain regions of rocks and crust and happen within...

Several cycles

The enormous volume of extant Messinian evaporites could not have been deposited during a single event.[2] Furthermore, the nature of the strata points strongly to several cycles of the Mediterranean Sea completely drying up and being refilled. Each refilling was presumably caused by a seawater inlet opening either tectonically or by a river flowing eastwards below sea level into the "Mediterranean Sink" cutting its valley head back west until it let the sea in, similarly to a river capture. The last refilling was at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary when the Strait of Gibraltar broke wide open permanently. Upon closely examining the Hole 124 core, Kenneth J. Hsu found that: Strata is a comic science fiction novel by Terry Pratchett. ... ... In geology, river capture is an event in which one river or stream captures or intercepts part of another. ... The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ... The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts) is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Kenneth J. Hsu (许靖华, Pinyin: Xǔ Jìnghuá) (born July 7, 1929)，is a scientist and geologist. ...

"The oldest sediment of each cycle was either deposited in a deep sea or in a great brackish lake. The fine sediments deposited on a quiet or deep bottom had perfectly even lamination. As the basin was drying up and the water depth decreased, lamination became more irregular on account of increasing wave agitation. Stromatolite was formed then, when the site of deposition fell within an intertidal zone. The intertidal flat was eventually exposed by the final desiccation, at which time anhydrite was precipitated by saline ground water underlying sabkhas. Suddenly seawater would spill over the Strait of Gibraltar, or there would be an unusual influx of brackish water from the eastern European lake. The Balearic abyssal plain would then again be under water. The chicken-wire anhydrite would thus be abruptly buried under the fine muds brought in by the next deluge. The cycle repeated itself at least eight or ten times during the million years that constituted the late Miocene Messinian stage." (Kenneth J. Hsu, The Mediterranean Was a Desert, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1983. A Voyage of the Glomar Challenger.)

Brackish water is water that is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as sea water. ... A laminate is a material constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. ... Pre-Cambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. ... It has been suggested that Intertidal ecology, Foreshore and Littoral be merged into this article or section. ... Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. ... The playa and shore of Lake Hart, an endorheic desert lake in South Australia Playa, also known as alkali flat or sabkha, is a dry lakebed, generally the shore of, or remnant of, an endorheic lake. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Balearic is the Catalan variant spoken in the Balearic Islands (Spanish las Islas Baleares), Spain. ... Abyssal plains are flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. ... Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. ... The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ... The Messinian period is the last part of the Miocene epoch. ... Kenneth J. Hsu (许靖华, Pinyin: Xǔ Jìnghuá) (born July 7, 1929)，is a scientist and geologist. ... The Princeton University Press is a publishing house, a division of Princeton University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ... Nassau Street, Princetons main street. ... The 120m long Glomar Challenger was a deep sea research and Scientific drilling vessel for marine geology studies. ...

Chronology

Based on palaeomagnetic datings of Messinian deposits tectonically brought above sea level, the salinity crisis started at the same time over all the Mediterranean basin, at 5.96 ± 0.02 million years ago. It was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean between 5.59 and 5.33 million years ago, resulting in a huge decrease in the Mediterranean sea level. During the initial stages (5.59 - 5.50 million years ago) was extreme erosion, creating several huge canyon systems (some similar in scale to the Grand Canyon) around the Mediterranean. Later stages (5.50 - 5.33 million years ago) are marked by cyclic evaporite deposition into a large "lake-sea" basin. Paleomagnetism refers to the study of the record of the Earths magnetic field preserved in various magnetic minerals through time. ... The Messinian period is the last part of the Miocene epoch. ... The Grand Canyon is a very colorful, steep-sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, in the U.S. state of Arizona. ... A sample of evaporite material Evaporites (IPA: ) are water-soluble, mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. ...

Dehydrated geography

The notion of a completely waterless Mediterranean Sea has some corollaries.

1. The Strait of Gibraltar must have somehow reconfigured to disconnect the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean.
2. The high level of salinity would have precluded almost all plant life or, by extension, animal life, making much of the basin a wasteland.^{[citation needed]} The basin's low altitude would have made it extremely hot during the summer through adiabatic heating, evidence supported by the presence of anhydrite, which is only deposited in water warmer than 35°C (95°F).
3. Rivers emptying into the basin would have cut their beds much deeper (at least a further 2400 m or 8000 feet with the Nile, as the buried canyon under Cairo shows). This later caused some consternation for the construction of the Aswan Dam, with an original river bed filled with debris 750 meters = c.2460 feet below sea level, although 1200 km away from the coast.
4. 2 to 3 miles below sea level at 35°C would have resulted in 1.43 to 1.71 atm (1090 to 1300 mmHg) of air pressure at the very bottom.^{[citation needed]}
5. Climates throughout the central and eastern basin of the Mediterranean and surrounding regions to the north and east would have been drier, even above modern sea level; today the evaporation from the Mediterranean Sea supplies moisture that falls in frontal storms, but without such moisture, the Mediterranean climate that we associate with Italy, Greece, and the Levant would be limited to the Iberian Peninsula and the western Maghreb. The eastern Alps, the Balkans, and the Hungarian plain would also be much drier than they are even if the westerlies prevailed as they do now. Civilizations characteristic of classical times would have been impossible in Egypt, Phoenicia, and Greece until the Mediterranean Sea filled.

The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... In thermodynamics, an adiabatic process is a process in which no heat is transferred to or from working fluid. ... Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. ... The Nile (Arabic: ‎, translit: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river, though not the most voluminous, in the world. ... Nickname: Al Qahirah (The Triumphant City) Cairos location in Egypt Coordinates: Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area    - City 210 km²  - Metro 1,492 km² Population (2005)  - City 7,438,376  - Density 35,420/km²  - Urban 10,834,495  - Metro 15,200,000 Time zone EET (UTC+2)  - Summer (DST... Map showing reservoir The hydroelectric power station of Aswan Dam Aswan is a city on the first cataract of the Nile in Egypt. ... A Mediterranean climate is a climate that resembles those of the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe. ... The Algerian bay (view from the west). ...

Global effects

The water from the Mediterranean would have been redistributed in the world ocean, raising global sea level by anything up to 10 meters (~33 feet).[3] The Mediterranean basin also sequestered below its seabed a significant percentage of the salt from Earth's oceans; this decreased the average salinity of seawater and raised its freezing point.[4]

In popular culture

Had the breach in the Strait of Gibraltar not occurred, as it did not with the land around the Suez Canal, the course of human history could have been very different. The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Ships moored at El Ballah during transit Egypt: Site of Suez Canal (top). ...

• An example of the possible differences can be found in Harry Turtledove's novel Down in the Bottomlands, which takes place on an alternate Earth where the Mediterranean Sea stayed empty, and void of water, and part of it is a national park to the countries around it, none of which are nations that we are familiar with in the real world.
• Other differences that would likely have developed are:-^{[citation needed]}
  • Egypt as we know it could not have developed: little or no agriculture would be possible in the Nile's canyon, and the Nile's alluvial fan in the "Mediterranean Sink" would be too hot for human habitation. The Nile canyon would have been a major barrier to travel.
  • Harsher climates and extensive zones of impassable desert between habitable areas would have rendered the economic and material basis of classical civilizations so different that any ancient civilizations in Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, and Carthage would have been very different or impossible.
• An early Dan Dare science fiction comic story says as a side remark that (in its time line) the Mediterranean stayed dry until Neolithic times and was flooded by alien spaceships exploding breaking the Strait of Gibraltar open.
• A draft version of the Space Odyssey series says that (in its time line) the Mediterranean bed stayed dry into human times and that the legend of Atlantis derived from the Mediterranean reflooding.
• The episode The Vanished Sea of the Animal Planet/ORF/ZDF-produced television series The Future Is Wild posits a world 5 million years in the future where the Mediterranean Basin has again dried up, and explores what kind of life could survive the new climate.

Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American historian and prolific novelist who has written historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction works. ... Down in the Bottomlands is a novella written by Harry Turtledove which takes places in an alternative history in which the Atlantic Ocean did not reflood the Mediterranean Sea 5. ... Parallel universe or alternate reality in science fiction and fantasy is a self-contained separate reality coexisting with our own. ... Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales, UK A national park is a reserve of land, usually declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. ... Alluvial Fan in Death Valley An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. ... Cities are a major hallmark of human civilization. ... Phoenician sarcophagus found in Cadiz, Spain; now in Archaeological Museum of Cádiz. ... See also Roman Republic (18th century) and Roman Republic (19th century). ... Carthage (Greek: , Arabic: ‎, Latin: ) refers both to an ancient city in North Africa located in modern day Tunis and to the civilization that developed within the citys sphere of influence. ... The return of the original Dan Dare in 1989 Dan Dare is a classic British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson for the Eagle comic story Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future in 1950 which was also carried in serial format several times a week on Radio... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... See comedian Stand up comedian List of Comedians List of British comedians comics comic book comic strip underground comics alternative comics web comic sprite comics manga graphic novel List of comic characters This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A picture of Platos description of Atlantis. ... The Vanished Sea is the third episode in the documentary series The Future is Wild. ... Animal Planet, launched in 1996, is a cable and satellite television network co-owned 80% by Discovery Communications, Inc. ... ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk, literally Austrian Broadcasting) is the national Austrian public service broadcaster. ... Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television), ZDF, is a public service German television channel based in Mainz. ... The Future Is Wild was a 2003 joint Animal Planet/ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany) co-production and a book based on the show, which used computer-generated imagery to show the possible future of life on Earth. ...

Cause

Although several possible causes have been considered, including tectonic uplift or sea level drop due to glaciation, evidence has been found of a crust-mantle interaction. Changes in volcanic rocks suggest subducted Tethys Sea crust may have moved westward and changed the chemistry and density in magma underlying the western Mediterranean. The less dense material under the area could have raised it sufficiently to close the Atlantic connection. ^[5] Sea level measurements from 23 long tide gauge records in geologically stable environments show a rise of around 8 inches per century (2 mm/year). ... The Tethys Sea was a shallow inland body of water that existed between Laurasia and Gondwana, the geological ancestor of the modern Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. ...

Replenishment

When the Strait of Gibraltar was ultimately breached, the Atlantic Ocean would have poured a vast volume of water through what would have presumably been a relatively narrow channel. The resulting waterfall could have been higher than Angel Falls is today (979 meters), and far more powerful than either Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls. The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Hopetoun Falls near Otway National Park, Victoria, Australia A waterfall is usually a geological formation resulting from water, often in the form of a stream, flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a sudden break in elevation. ... Angel Falls or Salto Ángel (indiginous name: Kerepakupay Vená) is the worlds highest free-falling waterfall at 979 m (3,210 ft) with an uninterrupted drop of 807 m (2,648 ft) lying in the Canaima National Park, Venezuela at . It is situated in the river Churún, an... For other uses, see Niagara Falls (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

References

1. ↑  Clauzon, Georges, Suc, Jean-Pierre, Gautier, François, Berger, André, Loutre, Marie-France (1996). "Alternate interpretation of the Messinian salinity crisis: Controversy resolved?". Geology 24 (4): 363–366.  DOI:<0363:AIOTMS>2.3.CO;2 10.1130/0091-7613(1996)024<0363:AIOTMS>2.3.CO;2
2. ↑  Svend Duggen, Kaj Hoernle, Paul van den Bogaard, Lars Rüpke and Jason Phipps Morgan (2003). "Deep roots of the Messinian salinity crisis". Nature 422 (6932): 602–6.  DOI:10.1038/nature01553
3. Geology 212, Lecture 17: "When the Mediterranean Dried Up". (Accessed 7/16/06)
4. W. KRIJGSMAN et al., "Chronology, causes and progression of the Messinian salinity crisis" Nature 400, 652 - 655

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ...

Bibliography

• Kenneth J. Hsu, The Mediterranean Was a Desert: A Voyage of the Glomar Challenger, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-02406-5

Kenneth J. Hsu (&#35768;&#38742;&#21326;, Pinyin: X&#468; Jìnghuá) (born July 7, 1929)&#65292;is a scientist and geologist. ...

External links

1. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/messin.htm
2. http://earth.leeds.ac.uk/tectonics/messinian/
3. http://www.messinianonline.it/