So how did this salty basin become the Mediterranean Sea once again? Well the situation reversed in exactly the same way that it was caused. The African and Eurasian tectonic plates continued to move.

As tectonic plates moved around, they sealed off the Strait of Gibraltar, essentially isolating the Mediterranean Sea. Gradually, the sea became a desert basin with kilometer-thick salt deposits.

The sunny Mediterranean ... the sea became isolated from the Atlantic Ocean, leading to the near-complete evaporation of the water due to arid conditions, leaving vast salt plains in the basin.

During this ecological catastrophe, which occurred around 5.97 to 5.33 million years ago, a huge amount of the Mediterranean Sea was dramatically transformed into a vast, salty lake. The level of the ...

No other such basin exists in the world. The world map shows what a unique location the Mediterranean Sea has in the world -- it is big enough to house all of us but at the same time, with its ...

The serene turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea hide a sharp-tasting secret: a layer of salt up to two miles thick, lurking deep underneath the basin. The ghostly white minerals are one of ...

This week's Sea-Floor Sunday is a really nice synthesis map of bathymetry of the Mediterranean Sea. Click on the map below or here to go to the page where you can see more. This is a nice resource ...

The Mediterranean Sea dropped during the Messinian Salinity Crisis—a major geological event that transformed the Mediterranean into a gigantic salt basin between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago.

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 ...

The analysis, called A Mediterranean basin without a Mediterranean climate?, shows the potential consequences of a changing climate for livability and workability in the area. “By 2050 ...