Mediterranean Sea Dried Up Five Million Years Ago

ScienceDaily ^ | Thursday, February 12, 2009 | Utrecht University

[SunkenCiv]

Some of the story of that research can be found in the beginning of the book “Noah’s Flood”. Either Ryan or Pitman (or was it both?) was one of the discoverers.

[cogitator]

A brief history of the Messinian on Sicily

Another neat Web site -- I'm going to have to watch this one:

Messinian online

Regarding the discovery, it was Ryan. Read the abstract to this one (main guy was Kenneth Hsu):

STABLE ISOTOPE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE MIOCENE EVAPORITES AND PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTARY ROCKS AND OOZES (PDF!!)

One more, this is really a great summary.

Profiles in Catastrophism: The Desertification and Deluge of the Mediterranean Basin

[gleeaikin]

If I remember correctly, H.G. Wells in his “Outline of History” has a map at the end of the last Ice Age showing the Mediterranian as two large inland seas with a land bridge at Gibraltar and Sicily. I believe the conjecture was that as the sea rose it flooded over Gibraltar, filled the Med. and may have been one source of some of the early flood myths. I sure hope that underwater archeology will start making serious searches around what would have been early river mouths which are now underwater.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks cogitator for all five of those links.

[SunkenCiv]

• The Mediterranean Was A Desert
• Colossal Flood Created the Mediterranean Sea
• mediterraneanflood keyword