3D animation - Mediterranean isolation and desiccation during the Messinian Salinity Crisis

[daniggcc]

@thehappyflowergirl (cont) Once the Med went disconnected, the level decreased, and eventually the east became disconnected (water level below the Sicily Sill), the west should have water excess for some thousand of years, spilling it towards the east.

[daniggcc]

@thehappyflowergirl Proposals by whom you mean? Anyway, the answer is I don't think the west could remain connected. Our models show that either the sea level of Med and Atl. are similar (if connected) or otherwise they imply disconnection. Intermediate situations (ie., significant drawdown of the Med during connection) cannot be sustained. However, the east is today more deficitary in water than the west and so it must have been during the Mess(inian).

[thehappyflowergirl]

Very nice animation :-) I particularly like the way you've illustrated the sub-basins and consequent variations between the western and eastern Med. What do you think of the latest proposals that the western Med remained connected to the Atlantic for much longer than the east?

[denisxmania]

Yahoo ;)

[daniggcc]

Yes, @Gruetze1 , thanks, it's worth noting: this is just one of the mechanisms proposed for the Messinian Salinity Crisis, it's not yet part of a scientific consensus, it illustrates only the model proposed in the article cited above

[Gruetze1]

Great animation, thanks! Also a nice animation of the delamination of the sub-continetal lithosphere. It's only one possible explanation, but the visualization is interesting.