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Mediterranean Might Have Filled In Months

Posted by kdawson on from the white-water-to-die-for dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A new model suggests that the Mediterranean Sea was filled in a gigantic flood some 5.3 million years ago. According to Daniel Garcia-Castellanos' paper in Nature, the sill at the Straight of Gibraltar gave way rather suddenly, with 40 cm of rock eroding and the water level rising by 10 m per day at its peak. They imagine a shallow, fast-moving stream of water (around 100 km/hr) several kilometers wide pouring into the basin with a flow greater than a thousand Amazon rivers — that's about 100,000,000 cubic meters per second." The flood would have dropped worldwide sea levels by 9.5 meters, probably triggering climate changes. In this model the Mediterranean filled in anywhere from a few months to two years at the outside.

7 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Roland Emmerich by assemblerex · · Score: 5, Funny

    just had an orgasm.

    1. Re:Roland Emmerich by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      And that filled the Mediterrean? Might explain the water quality...

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  2. 5 million? by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    Are you sure that flood didn't happen 5 thousand years ago?

    1. Re:5 million? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Me personally, I would have *loved* to have been born BC. That way, we count down our age, and your friends would greet you with, 'You're looking younger; how *do* you manage it' with each birthday!

    2. Re:5 million? by m.ducharme · · Score: 4, Funny

      You must be a hit at parties.

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  3. Re:Yet another great /. science discussion kicks o by oGMo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why something as deep as the Mediterranean was dry instead of a lake in the first place.

    Well, before that, it was a lake. Where do you think the aliens stole all the water from?! It was freshwater then, of course. Sadly the Sahara Forest never recovered.

    ;-)

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  4. Re:Geo-engineering by Hurricane78 · · Score: 4, Funny

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    We also have a dress code. But as long as you look really evil, you’re welcome. :)

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