Formation and Life of Mediterranean Revealed in New Study

The Mediterranean Ocean plays an important role in the environment. Its formation and life process are still studied.

6 million years ago if one would be where today the Mediterranean ocean waters are one would be able to walk steadily in all directions -the place was then a massive desert. Exactly 5.3 million years ago the immense volumes of the Atlantic Ocean found a way to re-penetrate into the Mediterranean Basin. In just two years a flow of water 1 thousand times the flow of the Amazon river cascaded through the Gibraltar Straight flooding the basin once again. This event is believed to have happened several times in history and bound to happen again. Since then waters continue to be exchanged from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. A new study has gathered insight on the flux of waters and information to better understand the formation of the Mediterranean Ocean. The formation of the Mediterranean Ocean as well as the formation of all oceans on Earth is dynamic, ever changing and matter of constant study englobed in the theory of Continental Drift as well as the Theory of mono-continent Pangea.

International Press reported on June 20^st on the findings published in the Magazine Science of the Expedition 339 of the International Ocean Drilling Project. The investigation reveals through collected samples that initial output circulations of salt waters of the Mediterranean to the Atlantic after the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar were relatively weak. The flux did not initiate until the end of the Pliocene –approximately 3 million years ago, the study assures.

“We set out to understand how the Strait of Gibraltar acted for the first time as a barrier and later as a connection gateway in the last six million years. Today after the expedition we have much more data to understand how the water output flux of the Mediterranean through the Straight was,” Co-Director of the study Javier Hernandez-Molina, professor in the Royal Halloway University of the UK told the media.

The formation of the Mediterranean Ocean–similar event to the formation of the Panamanian Bridge which separated the Pacific from the Atlantic Ocean are not events without incredible consequences for life on Earth in all its aspects. Great bodies of water and their dynamic alter global climate, affect salinity of ocean and ocean life, affect ocean circulation, tides, underwater currents and eventually alter all aspects of evolution of life on Earth as life forms are forced to adapt to new environmental situations and global energy systems brought forward by the alteration of ocean basins.

The 339 expedition collected 5 kilometers of samples of substrate sediments of the ocean in the Gulf of Cadiz and west of Portugal -an area never drilled before. Climate sequences were extracted from the samples as well as evidences of deep tectonic activity.

The Strait of Gibraltar continues today to play an important role environmentally and for society. In today´s scenario the water output flux from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean is one of force –the flow cascades through the Straight into the Atlantic.

Ocean Life News in Brief

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