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The Mediterranean Sea as we know it today formed about 5.3 million years ago when Atlantic Ocean waters breached the strait of Gibraltar, sending a massive flood into the basin. Geologists have long known that the Mediterranean became isolated from the world's oceans around 5.6 million years ago, evaporating almost completely in the hundreds of thousands of years that followed. Scientists also largely agree that the Mediterranean basin was refilled when the movements of Earth's crustal plates caused the ground around the Gibraltar Strait to subside, allowing the ocean waters of the Atlantic to cut through the rock separating the...

The Mediterranean Sea as we know it today formed about 5.3 million years ago when Atlantic Ocean waters breached the strait of Gibraltar, sending a massive flood into the basin. > But exactly how the waters cut their way through and how long it took them to do so wasn't known. >

Approximately five million years ago, the Mediterranean Sea dried up after it was sealed off from the Atlantic Ocean. According to earth scientist Rob Govers of Utrecht University, a reduction in the weight on the Earth's crust led to the Straits of Gibraltar moving upwards. Govers will publish his conclusions in the February issue of the earth sciences journal Geology. Much like a mattress springs back into shape after you get off it, the Earth's crust moves upwards when sea levels fall. Known as isostasy, this phenomenon explains how the Mediterranean Sea was sealed off from the Atlantic Ocean five...

The Mediterranean Was a Desert Alan Feuerbacher In the past three decades convincing evidence has been found that the Mediterranean Sea has completely dried up at least once, and probably many times. The first solid evidence came in the summer of 1970, when geologists aboard the deep sea research and drilling ship Glomar Challenger brought up drill cores containing gypsum, rock salt, and various other minerals that could only have been formed by drying up of seawater. What was remarkable was that these minerals were found on the ocean floor, one to three kilometers deep, buried under as much as...

Search for "Lost" Atlantis Centers on Strait of Gibraltar The Record, Bergen County, New Jersey January 4, 2002 It was Plato, around 360 B.C., who first described an ancient, exotic island kingdom catastrophically buried beneath the sea when its once-virtuous people angered the gods with their pronounced tilt toward sin and corruption. Since then, creative souls ranging from Jules Verne to Kirk Morris, Maria Montez, Fay Spain, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michael J. Fox, and Walt Disney have sought to explain and exploit the terrible fate that befell Atlantis. Vases from Atlantis? Archaeologists made an important find in the 1960s, lending support ...

Most recent dating places one wave of human dispersal out of Africa into southeastern Spain at almost one million years ago. Using state-of-the-art dating methodologies, a team of scientists have obtained or confirmed a date range between .9 and .85 Mya (million years ago) as a time when a species of Old World monkey (Theropithecus) and an early species of human occupied the cave site of Cueva Victoria in southeastern Spain. It is a location not far from where many scientists have hypothesized that humans may have crossed over into Europe from North Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar at...

Due to a plethora of reasons, there are at least ten countries which may not survive the next 20 years. Although the list concocted by Top Lists remains highly speculative, it is worth knowing which nations may become extinct.

S T. PETERSBURG -- Suspicions of connections with organized crime have dogged Vladimir Putin since his stint in the St. Petersburg mayor's office in the early 1990s. The accusations have gained new momentum in recent weeks with two important developments. On December 1, opposition politician and anticorruption campaigner Aleksei Navalny released a film expose on Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika and his sons, outlining circumstantial evidence of ties to organized crime and abuse of the prosecutor's office for financial gain. The film has garnered more than 3.5 million views and it is becoming increasingly hard for the Kremlin to ignore, despite the...

Along a lush river delta in what is now northeastern Spain, a herd of dinosaurs munched on ferns and conifers similar to modern-day cypresses 125 million years ago. These creatures stood out from the others in this Cretaceous Period landscape by virtue of the unusual sail-like structure on their backs, and experts today can only hypothesize about its function.

In spite of the mystery that usually surrounds ancient shipwrecks, it is almost certain that the ship was sailing a route between Italy, Spain and Portugal in order to transport a precious cargo of Roman garum. The clue lies in the shape of the clay jars, as the sauce itself has all since seeped into the sea. "After we filmed the wreck and analyzed an amphora [clay jar] and some fragments that a robotic craft brought back to the surface, we realized the ship was carrying a huge quantity of fish sauce when it sank," said Trigona. "The amphora are...

The man, who was travelling with an Irish passport, is wanted by authorities in the US for being part of an al-Qaeda cell suspected of planning an attack on a Swedish cartoonist. Hiding still 'indefinite' for Swedish artist Vilks (25 Mar 15) Ali Charaf Damache was detained on Thursday evening at a hotel in the tourist heart of Barcelona, the Catalan regional Interior Ministry confirmed on Friday. Police were alerted to his presence in Barcelona thanks to a telephone tip-off to the emergency 112 number. "We became aware that this person was in Barcelona earlier this week," said Jordi Jané,...

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a guest house near the Spanish embassy in Kabul on Friday, and said fighting was still going on at the scene. Gunfire was reported immediately following the explosion, in a heavily protected area of the capital close to many foreign embassies and government buildings. Officials said police were on the scene. At least three insurgents appeared to be involved in the attack, a police official said. A Taliban spokesman said the attack targeted "an invader's guest house". At least seven people were brought to a hospital operated by the aid...

In particular, Islamic radicals are looking to create cells of so-called white al Qaeda, non-Arab members who can evade racial profiling used by police forces to watch for potential terrorists. "They want to look European to carry out operations in Europe," said a Western intelligence agent in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and Montenegro, adjacent to Bosnia. "It's yet another evolution in the tools used by terrorists." ... n addition, Serbian police accidentally came across a key suspect in the March 2004 bombings of Madrid commuter trains while he was traveling through the country by train. He arrived in the...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

Spain is once again about to fall apart. This time it may have a real problem in Catalonia, the prosperous industrial province on its northeast Mediterranean coast. In November 2014, 80% of Catalonians polled favored independence in a non-binding election.  The Spanish Constitutional Court ruled the plebiscite illegal; but the separatists did not give up.  Elections this September 2015 have given Catalonia's autonomous region a separatist legislature, well over half being secessionist (72 - 63), though the popular vote for these particular parties was only 48%. They are seeking independence in 2017. The battle is on. Spain was and...

The Spanish galleon San José was overloaded with 200 passengers and 700 tons of cargo on a summer night in 1631 when it smashed into a rock off the Pacific coast of Panama, spilling silver coins and bars into the Gulf of Panama. More than 400,000 coins and at least 1,417 bars were lost over a 40-mile trail. Four hundred years later, that shipwreck has become one of the latest to land in a legal quagmire over who should have the rights to historic artifacts trapped under the sea. This one involves the United Nations, the United States Department of...

The Thanksgiving tale of the Pilgrims and the Indian has an astonishing, less well-known back story. The story of how the Pilgrims arrived at our shores on the Mayflower—and how a friendly Patuxet native named Squanto showed them how to plant corn, using fish as fertilizer—is well-known. But Squanto’s full story is not, as National Geographic’s new Thanksgiving miniseries, “Saints & Strangers,” shows. That might be because some details of Squanto’s life are in dispute. The important ones are not, however. His story is astonishing, even raising profound questions about God’s role in American history. Every Thanksgiving we remember that,...

Madrid, Spain, Nov 23, 2015 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- Critics of Pamplona's city council say it deliberately attacked Catholics and broke Spanish law by using city property to display a sacrilegious art exhibit with more than 240 stolen consecrated Hosts. The Spanish artist Abel Azcona stole more than 240 consecrated Hosts by pretending to receive Holy Communion at Mass. He then placed the hosts on the ground to form the word "Pederasty" in Spanish. Photos of the theft of the Hosts and their placement on the ground are shown in a public art gallery in Pamplona. The city council there...

Organization of delight is here this day, The Body of Christ coming together to form The Bride, lock in and stay, Fear and Doubt is not part of this wardrobe, The Tailor of Virtue has bought this design of Virtue and this dress is sold, Bringing it together with the thread of Unity, Every part of The Body, All in agreement to walk down the isle and meet The Groom, A picture of Delight and The Bride is swooned, So in love with her Boaz and King! She begins to sing ~ ~ ~ The Song of The Lamb and...

Systematic changes are in effect now for all those accessing The Highway of Holiness for Truly as you meet each waypoint in Steps of Faith , your "Knowing" what has changed from where you were to where you are now shall be entrusted to you for your hands have been found clean and your hearts free from guile for this is the road for all those that "HAVE" Overcome ! 2 Peter 1:1-11 1 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle (special messenger) of Jesus Christ, to those who have received (obtained an equal privilege of) like precious faith with ourselves...