{"id":132434,"date":"2024-12-02T09:37:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T02:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132434"},"modified":"2024-12-02T09:37:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T02:37:22","slug":"the-mediterranean-almost-vanished-millions-of-years-ago-heres-why-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132434","title":{"rendered":"The Mediterranean Almost Vanished Millions of Years Ago. Here&#8217;s Why. : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Around 5.5 million years ago, almost three quarters of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mediterranean_Sea\">Mediterranean Sea<\/a> evaporated into the air \u2013 and new research helps to explain what caused this event, known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Messinian_salinity_crisis\">Messinian Salinity Crisis<\/a> (MSC).<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The extreme evaporation event actually happened in two phases, according to the international team behind the new study.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>By analyzing chlorine isotopes in the salt deposited on the seabed, and building numerical models and simulations, the researchers were able to chart when, where, and how 70 percent of the Mediterranean&#8217;s water was lost.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The first phase covered 35,000 years of restricted water flow between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, via what is now the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Strait_of_Gibraltar\">Strait of Gibraltar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>As the seawater wasn&#8217;t getting refreshed with freshwater, that restriction sped up the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/mystery-of-snow-phenomenon-in-the-dead-sea-could-finally-be-solved\">deposit of salts<\/a> and water evaporation in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_144090\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-144090\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MedChart.jpg\" alt=\"Mediterranean chart\" width=\"642\" height=\"331\" class=\"wp-image-144090 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MedChart.jpg 642w, https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2024\/11\/MedChart-600x309.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-144090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The evaporation event affected the two sides of the Med differently. (Aloisi et al., <em>Nature Communications<\/em>, 2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the second phase, across the next 10,000 years, the Mediterranean Sea was completely isolated, and the whole process accelerated.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The researchers, led by Earth system scientist Giovanni Aloisi from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), found that in some areas, water levels would have dropped by as much as 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles).<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>As the water receded in phase 2, the underwater ridge across the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Strait_of_Sicily\">Strait of Sicily<\/a> would&#8217;ve become exposed, the team suggests \u2013 effectively splitting the <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mediterranean Sea<\/span> in two and forming a land bridge between Africa and Europe.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>That in turn led to faster rates of evaporation in the eastern Mediterranean, where the biggest drops in sea level would have been \u2013 and most salt deposits were found across both of these phases.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0025322712002824\">long debated<\/a> how the MSC came about, and whether or not it happened when the <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mediterranean<\/span> was fully cut off from the Atlantic. This new study suggests both schools of thought are right \u2013 that it was a two-phase process.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>The researchers don&#8217;t dive deeply into why the Mediterranean became isolated, but the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Miocene\">late Miocene<\/a> was a time of extensive, dramatic tectonic activity. The MSC itself would&#8217;ve caused even more tumult, as pressure lifted on the surface crust, and surrounding areas dried out.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The huge size of the Mediterranean  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/depression\" class=\"lar_link lar_link_outgoing\" data-linkid=\"73097\" data-postid=\"144087\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\">depression<\/a> created by MSC water level drawdown \u2013 corresponding to a volume loss of 69 percent of the Mediterranean water body \u2013 would have generated planetary-scale climate effects, inducing changes in precipitation patterns, a scenario suggested by rainfall proxy data,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-53781-6\">write<\/a> the authors in their published paper.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Today, the Strait of Gibraltar is much wider and deeper than it was during phase 1 of the MSC. If it wasn&#8217;t for this connection to the Atlantic Ocean, it&#8217;s estimated that today the sea level of the <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mediterranean<\/span> would be dropping by <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.ametsoc.org\/view\/journals\/clim\/15\/13\/1520-0442_2002_015_1674_thcitm_2.0.co_2.xml\">about half a meter<\/a> (nearly 20 inches) every year.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zanclean_flood\">Zanclean flood<\/a> event reversed the impact of the MSC, but this new study offers valuable insight into not just the Mediterranean Sea, but changes across the whole region during this formative time in history.<\/p>\n<p><!-- START single\/mrec --><br \/>\n<!-- END single\/mrec --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our results have broader implications for the biological, geologic and climatic evolution of the Mediterranean realm, and beyond,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-53781-6\">write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n<p>The research has been published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-024-53781-6\"><em>Nature Communications<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/the-mediterranean-almost-vanished-millions-of-years-ago-heres-why\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Around 5.5 million years ago, almost three quarters of the Mediterranean Sea evaporated into the air \u2013 and new research helps to explain what caused this event, known as the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132434\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}