At 01:41 PM 7/28/99 +0600, day brown wrote:
>Does anyone have a date for when the Atlantic rose enough
>to burst across Gibraltar and fill the then dry basin of
>the Mediterranean?
Some years ago I had hoped that such a happening had occurred, for it
would have solved a number of puzzles, or at least made hypotheses easier,
but evidently the Med was never dry, nor the Straits of Gibraltar ever
closed. Actually, the promontories were more separated, earlier on.
However, the Bosporus was shut, with the Black Sea as a fresh-water lake.
I am given to understand that there is still a low, dead layer of saltless
water underlying it.
It is interesting, though, to envision the Mediterranean at a low level,
with the Nile carving its deep channel outward, and the bridge between
Africa and Italy, via Malta, as a viable step in man's explorations.
BF
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