A little over five million years ago, something dramatic happened: water from the Atlantic Ocean burst through the Strait of Gibraltar and poured into a dry Mediterranean Sea. Imagine a waterfall so massive it could fill the Mediterranean in a matter of months, releasing an amount of water equal to 1,000 times today’s Amazon River.
This theory emerged from a 2009 study where scientists believed that a massive underwater canyon was carved during this flood event. If correct, the Zanclean megaflood would be the largest flood in Earth’s history. However, some researchers are skeptical and demand robust evidence to back these claims.
Recent research has examined sedimentary rock from the Zanclean era, pinpointing how water surged across the bedrock, particularly between Sicily and Africa. This ongoing investigation continues a discussion that started in the late 1800s. At that time, geologists noted that something peculiar occurred between five and six million years ago when the Mediterranean Sea dried up. They labeled this event the Messinian salinity crisis, highlighting a substantial environmental shift.
Drilling in the 1970s revealed a thick layer of salt below the Mediterranean seafloor, confirming that nearly all the water had evaporated. Fossil evidence suggested that the once vibrant sea had turned into shallow lakes. Remarkably, less than 11% of marine life survived through this crisis, illustrating its seriousness.
The term "Zanclean Flood" was introduced in the 1970s, although scientists had yet to understand its scale or the duration it took to fill the basin. In 2009, researchers studied the topography for a proposed tunnel between Africa and Europe, discovering evidence of this catastrophic event.
Our latest research took us to Sicily, where we found unusual landscape features that mirrored those found in Washington State, formed by past megafloods. By employing computer models, we simulated the course of floodwaters surging across the Sicily Sill. Results suggested torrents of water, up to 40 meters deep and traveling at speeds of 115 kilometers per hour (about 71 mph), would have reshaped the land.
Staggeringly, in just one area, an estimated 13 million cubic meters of water would have flowed into the eastern Mediterranean basin each second. For comparison, today’s Amazon River discharges around 200,000 cubic meters per second—highlighting just how immense this ancient flood was.
These findings not only deepen our understanding of Earth’s geological history but also underscore the dramatic shifts that can occur in our planet’s climate and landscapes. By connecting diverse strands of evidence from geology, sedimentary rock studies, and computer modeling, scientists can better grasp this monumental event and its ramifications for life on Earth.
For more details, you can explore the original post from The Conversation.
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