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Zanclean Flood
The Zanclean flood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago. This flooding ended the Messinian salinity crisis and reconnected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, although it is possible that even before the flood there were partial connections to the Atlantic Ocean. The re-connection marks the beginning of the Zanclean age (geology), age which is the name given to the earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene. According to this model, water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the Endorheic basin, dried-up basin through the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar. Ninety percent of the Mediterranean Basin flooding occurred abruptly during a period estimated to have been between several months and two years, following low water discharges that could have lasted for several thousand years. Sea level rise in the basin may have reached rates at times greater than . Based on the erosion features preserved until mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paratethys
The Paratethys sea, Paratethys ocean, Paratethys realm or just Paratethys (meaning "beside Tethys"), was a large shallow inland sea that covered much of mainland Europe and parts of western Asia during the middle to late Cenozoic, from the late Paleogene to the late Neogene, and is regarded as the largest inland sea in history. At its greatest extent, it stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to the Aral Sea in Central Asia. Paratethys formed about 34 Mya (million years ago) at the beginning of the Oligocene epoch, when the northern region of the Tethys Ocean (Peri-Tethys) was separated from the Mediterranean region of the Tethys realm due to the formation of the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Taurus and Elburz mountains. Paratethys was at times reconnected with the Tethys or its successors (the Mediterranean Sea or the Indian Ocean) during the Oligocene and the early and middle Miocene times, but at the onset of the late Miocene epoch, the tecton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Runoff
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow or terrestrial runoff) is the unconfined flow of water over the ground surface, in contrast to ''channel runoff'' (or ''stream flow''). It occurs when excess rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, or other sources, can no longer sufficiently rapidly infiltrate in the soil. This can occur when the soil is #Saturation excess overland flow, saturated by water to its full capacity, and the rain arrives #Infiltration excess overland flow, more quickly than the soil can absorb it. Surface runoff often occurs because wikt:impervious#Adjective, impervious areas (such as roofs and Road surface, pavement) do not allow water to soak into the ground. Furthermore, runoff can occur either through natural or human-made processes. Surface runoff is a major component of the water cycle. It is the primary agent of Soil erosion#Rainfall and runoff, soil erosion by water. The land area producing runoff that drains to a common point is called a drainage basin. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Mediterranean
The Eastern Mediterranean is a loosely delimited region comprising the easternmost portion of the Mediterranean Sea, and well as the adjoining land—often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It includes the southern half of Turkey's main region, Anatolia; its smaller Hatay Province; the island of Cyprus; the Greek Dodecanese islands; and the countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, State of Palestine, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Its broadest uses can encompass the Libyan Sea (thus Libya), the Aegean Sea (thus East Thrace, European Turkey and the mainland and islands of Greece), and the Ionian Sea (thus southern Albania in Southeast Europe) and can extend west to Italy's farthest south-eastern coasts. Jordan is climatically and economically part of the region. Regions The eastern Mediterranean region is commonly interpreted in two ways: *The Levant, including its historically tied neighboring countries, Balkans and islands of Greece. *The Syria (region), region of Sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccation, desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The sea was an important ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canyon
A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces, eventually wearing away rock layers as sediments are removed downstream. A river bed will gradually reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water into which the river drains. The processes of weathering and erosion will form canyons when the river's headwaters and estuary are at significantly different elevations, particularly through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more resistant to weathering. A canyon may also refer to a rift between two mountain peaks, such as those in ranges including the Rocky Mountains, the Alps, the Himalayas or the Andes. Usually, a river or stream carves out such splits between mountains. Examples of mountain- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea (Gulf of Lion). At Arles, near its mouth, the river divides into the Great Rhône () and the Little Rhône (). The resulting River delta, delta forms the Camargue region. The river's source is the Rhône Glacier, at the east edge of the Cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Valais. The glacier is part of the Saint-Gotthard Massif, which gives rise to three other major rivers: the Reuss (river), Reuss, Rhine and Ticino (river), Ticino. The Rhône is, with the Po (river), Po and the Nile, one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest Discharge (hydrology), water discharge. Etymology The name ''Rhône'' continues the Latin name (Ancient Greek, Greek ) in Greco-Roman geography. The Gaulish name of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nile
The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river systems by length, longest river in the world, though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer.Amazon Longer Than Nile River, Scientists Say Of the world's major rivers, the Nile has one of the lowest average annual flow rates. About long, its drainage basin covers eleven countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt. In pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messinian Salinity Crisis
In the Messinian salinity crisis (also referred to as the Messinian event, and in its latest stage as the Lago Mare event) the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation (drying-up) throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma (million years ago). It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin. Sediment samples from below the deep seafloor of the Mediterranean Sea, which include evaporite minerals, soils, and fossil plants, show that the precursor of the Strait of Gibraltar closed about 5.96 million years ago, sealing the Mediterranean off from the Atlantic. This resulted in a period of partial desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea, the first of several such periods during the late Miocene. After the strait closed for the last time around 5.6 Ma, the region's generally dry climate at the time dried the Mediterranean basin out nearly completely within ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guadalhorce
The Guadalhorce (from Arabic وَادِي ('' wādī''), "river" + Latin ''forfex'', "scissors") is the principal river of the Province of Málaga in southern Spain. Its source is in the Sierra de Alhama in the Province of Granada, from which it drains the depression of Antequera, flowing for through southern Andalusia into the Mediterranean west of the city of Málaga. It has the greatest volume of flow of any river in the Costa del Sol region after the Guadiaro. It forms the long canyon of Desfiladero de los Gaitanes, a spectacular gorge with sheer walls towering up to in places, before continuing through the Hoya de Málaga. Over its course, it passes through the towns of Villanueva del Trabuco, Villanueva del Rosario, Archidona, Antequera, Alhaurín el Grande, Alhaurín de la Torre, Almogía, Álora, Cártama, Coín, Pizarra and Valle de Abdalajís, forming the ''comarca'' of Valle del Guadalhorce; then bifurcates shortly before it reaches the sea. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and allowing the interchange of fauna between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans and Ape, hominoids into Eurasia. During the late Miocene, the conn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
