Mediterranean Might Have Filled In Months 224
Posted
by
kdawson
from the white-water-to-die-for dept.
from the white-water-to-die-for dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new model suggests that the Mediterranean Sea was filled in a gigantic flood some 5.3 million years ago. According to Daniel Garcia-Castellanos' paper in Nature, the sill at the Straight of Gibraltar gave way rather suddenly, with 40 cm of rock eroding and the water level rising by 10 m per day at its peak. They imagine a shallow, fast-moving stream of water (around 100 km/hr) several kilometers wide pouring into the basin with a flow greater than a thousand Amazon rivers — that's about 100,000,000 cubic meters per second." The flood would have dropped worldwide sea levels by 9.5 meters, probably triggering climate changes. In this model the Mediterranean filled in anywhere from a few months to two years at the outside.
Roland Emmerich (Score:5, Funny)
5 million? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:5 million? (Score:2, Funny)
Are you sure that flood didn't happen 5 thousand years ago?
This man is right. Read all about it right here: http://conservapedia.com/Great_Flood
Video please? (Score:4, Funny)
This story would be much cooler with a video clip.
Re:Yet another great /. science discussion kicks o (Score:5, Funny)
Well, before that, it was a lake. Where do you think the aliens stole all the water from?! It was freshwater then, of course. Sadly the Sahara Forest never recovered.
Re:Geo-engineering (Score:4, Funny)
I will help you. The dead sea is already such a big hole in the earth. So just let it stream in there. As it also will flood the most troublesome part of the middle east, that is yet another problem solved.
Re:Roland Emmerich (Score:5, Funny)
And that filled the Mediterrean? Might explain the water quality...
Re:Video please? (Score:2, Funny)
Pix or didn't happen.
Re:Geo-engineering (Score:5, Funny)
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It is a bad, bad plan, that will hurt many people that are good!
I think it’s great, because it’s so bad!
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Re:5 million? (Score:5, Funny)
Me personally, I would have *loved* to have been born BC. That way, we count down our age, and your friends would greet you with, 'You're looking younger; how *do* you manage it' with each birthday!
In MONTHS? (Score:3, Funny)
Climate change!!?? (Score:3, Funny)
"The flood would have dropped worldwide sea levels by 9.5 meters, probably triggering climate changes."
OMG, something MUST be done to revert the planet to it's pre-Mediterranean-Sea-filling pristine state, or you will all rot in Al Gore's climate Purgatory!
Documentation (Score:4, Funny)
And you just know there are cave drawings somewhere showing jackasses trying to body surf in it.
Re:5 million? (Score:4, Funny)
You must be a hit at parties.
Re:How do you think stories got started? (Score:3, Funny)
The Easter Bunny, for example.
Re:Geo-engineering (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, is the site really gone? Wait, here are the new club rules:
http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html [eviloverlord.com]
"Straight" of Gibraltar (Score:4, Funny)
According to Daniel Garcia-Castellanos' paper in Nature, the sill at the Straight of Gibraltar gave way rather suddenly, with 40 cm of rock eroding and the water level rising by 10 m per day at its peak.
I'm relieved to know the Strait of Gibraltar is not gay; I was convinced he was hitting on me the other day.
Re:Roland Emmerich (Score:2, Funny)
Because they're too attached to the preproccessorex and compilerex.