#messinian — Public Fediverse posts

Late Miocene Euphrates River Drained Into A Partially Desiccated Eastern Mediterranean
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-01962-x <-- shared paper
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[the paleogeographic reconstruction is outstanding, including the strength and information conveyed so well in that figure, kudos!]
H/T @lina Jakaitė-Darkšė
“Although the Euphrates River - stretching ~3,000 km across Western Asia - has shaped the region’s geology for millions of years, the timing of its origin and the evolution of its course remain enigmatic. So far, two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed to explain the fluvial system’s Late Neogene path: termination in Anatolia at a palaeo-lake or the Mediterranean, or a southeastward continuation to Arabia. Here [they] use seismic-reflection and topographic data to show that two previously identified sedimentary accumulations - deposited during the terminal phase of the Late Miocene Messinian salinity crisis - resulted from dual riverine systems that drained into a partially desiccated eastern Mediterranean before avulsing toward the Persian Gulf and converging to form the modern Euphrates River. From probabilistic sediment-budget modelling, [they] show that although the latest Messinian drainage basins were an order of magnitude smaller than their present-day extents, the total palaeo-discharge exceeded that of the modern Tigris, Euphrates and Nile rivers combined, indicating intense palaeo-precipitation and high palaeo-relief. These results suggest that plate-margin deformation both controlled the fluvial avulsions that diverted the Euphrates River from the Anatolian–Eurasian Plate to the Arabian Plate, and established the conditions necessary for the development of the alluvial Fertile Crescent…”
#water #hydrology #hydrography #paleogeography #Euphrates #river #Miocene #reconstruction #spatialreconstruction #geology #change #erosion #MiddleEast #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #Neogene #Anatolia #paleolake #Mediterranean #Arabia #Messinian #remotesensing #model #modeling #topography #hydrogeomorphology #geomorphology #PersianGulf #sediment #paleodischarge #volume #Tigris #elevation #platetectonics #structuralgeology #platemargin #fluvial #avulsion #FertileCrescent

Messinian salinity crisis (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Messinian salinity crisis was an event in which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma. It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment samples from be...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

#MessinianSalinityCrisis #Messinian #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology

Messinian salinity crisis (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Messinian salinity crisis was an event in which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma. It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment samples from be...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

#MessinianSalinityCrisis #Messinian #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology

Messinian erosional crisis (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Messinian Erosional Crisis is a phase in the Messinian evolution of the central Mediterranean basin resulting from major drawdown of the Mediterranean seawater. As outlined in numerous studies, erosional events along the margins of the Mediterranean Basin during the Messinian timespan, before and during the evaporit...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_erosional_crisis

#MessinianErosionalCrisis #Messinian #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology

Messinian salinity crisis (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Messinian salinity crisis was an event in which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma. It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment samples from be...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

#MessinianSalinityCrisis #Messinian #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology

Betic corridor (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Betic Corridor, or North-Betic Strait, was a strait of water connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean that once separated the Iberian plate from the Eurasian Plate through the Betic Cordillera. Its closure approximately 5.96 million years ago during the Messinian period of the Miocene epoch, precipitate...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betic_corridor

#BeticCorridor #Messinian #BaeticSystem #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology #GeologyOfTheAlps

Messinian salinity crisis (Paleogeography 🦕)

The Messinian salinity crisis was a geological event during which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma. It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment sa...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis

#MessinianSalinityCrisis #Messinian #Paleogeography #RegionalGeology

Colossal underwater canyon discovered near seamount deep in the #Mediterranean Sea https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/colossal-underwater-canyon-discovered-near-seamount-deep-in-the-mediterranean-sea

Discovery of the #Messinian Eratosthenes Canyon in the deep Levant Basin https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921818123002928

"around 6 million years ago... the #MediterraneanSea became isolated from the world's #oceans and dried up for roughly 700,000 years... As #SeaLevels dropped, increasingly salty currents eroded the #seabed... researchers now describe a giant U-shaped #canyon located 120 km south of #Cyprus"