{"id":5332,"date":"2024-02-19T16:52:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T09:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/?p=5332"},"modified":"2024-02-19T16:52:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T09:52:52","slug":"that-time-the-mediterranean-sea-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/that-time-the-mediterranean-sea-disappeared\/","title":{"rendered":"That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>TLDR<\/strong>: <\/em>The discovery of a giant rabbit and the Mediterranean Salt Giant reveal the Mediterranean Sea&#8217;s evaporation and refilling due to tectonic shifts and climate changes, impacting marine life and evolution.<\/p>\n<p>This article is a summary of a You Tube video &#8220;That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared&#8221; by PBS Eons<br \/>\n<iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HooZ84rpovQ?si=bHd8Zn6TiStrisLD\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Key Takeaways:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Discovery of Nuralagus rex<\/strong>: In 2011, paleontologists found fossils of a giant rabbit, Nuralagus rex, on Minorca, indicating a case of insular gigantism during the Pliocene Epoch.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mediterranean Salt Giant<\/strong>: The undersea salt deposits, known as the Mediterranean Salt Giant, suggest that the Mediterranean Sea once evaporated, leading to a major geological mystery.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC)<\/strong>: This crisis occurred when the Mediterranean&#8217;s main water source from the Atlantic was cut off, leading to high evaporation rates and the formation of salt deposits.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hypotheses for MSC<\/strong>: Scientists proposed three main hypotheses involving global cooling, tectonic shifts, and a combination of tectonic shifts with climate change, to explain the MSC.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tectonic and Climatic Factors<\/strong>: The most accepted explanation involves repeated tectonic shifts and climate change cycles, affecting sea levels and water inflow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impact on Marine Life<\/strong>: The MSC drastically altered marine ecosystems, making the Mediterranean uninhabitable for most marine life during its driest periods.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Faunal Migrations and Evolution<\/strong>: The lowering of sea levels allowed African megafauna to migrate to Mediterranean islands, leading to unique evolutionary paths like insular gigantism and dwarfism.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Replenishment of the Mediterranean<\/strong>: The sea was refilled from the Atlantic, possibly through a river-like influx rather than a waterfall, ending the MSC in about 2 years during the Zanclean Flood.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Possibility of Recurrence<\/strong>: The ongoing shifts in Earth&#8217;s tectonic plates and climate changes suggest that such an event could conceivably happen again.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scientific Inquiry and Evidence<\/strong>: The MSC&#8217;s investigation showcases the complexity of geological and biological processes and the importance of interdisciplinary research in uncovering Earth&#8217;s history.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The discovery of a giant rabbit and the Mediterranean Salt Giant reveal the Mediterranean Sea&#8217;s evaporation and refilling due to tectonic shifts and climate changes, impacting marine life and evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-44","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5334,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5332\/revisions\/5334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wam.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}