The Arid Lands themes: Zanclean Flood

About 5.3 million years ago, after years of sustained evaporation had resulted in the landlocked Mediterranean Sea almost completely evaporating, the waters returned when the Straits of Gibraltar was breached. This, possibly the largest flood in known Earth’s history, is known as the Zanclean Flood.

Details of the rapidity and nature of this flood remain up for debate but recent studies of deep gully like incisions in the seabed near the Straits of Gibraltar and extending out into the Mediterrane...