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Impact of the Mediterranean salinity crisis
The desiccation of Mediterranean took 5.5 myr ago. Such a geologically recent catastrophic event left behind not only a giant evaporate deposit, it alsohad a great impact on th modern world , on the circum-mediterranean landscape, on regional and global climates, and on the evolutions and distribution of plants and animals.
The lowering of thebase-level of erosion led to the deep incision on river which drained into the Mediterranean , even the southern Alpine lakes may have been messinians canyons modified by Pleistocene glacial erosion. Theexposure of Mediterranean bottom promoted an unusually active late Miocene groundwater movement, which was probably responsible for the initiation of karst topography on Yugoslavia and in otherMediterranean countries. The uneven topography of the Mediterranean ridge may have been a modified karst development anomalous drilling behavior noted during leg 42A drilling on the ridge suggestpresence of submarine caverns.
The salinity crisis induced a continued changed towards a cooler and more arid climate in the circum-mediterranean. The Antarctic ice sheet expanded greatly n during themesinean, and the arctic ice sheet may have begun to for then.
Biologists are only beginning to explore the implications of the Miocene Mediterranean desiccation. The present Mediterranean fauna issimilar to that of the Pliocene, but very different from that of the Miocene, a fact noted by Lyell more than 100 yr ago. When he first established the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. The periodicconversion of and inland sea into dry land also permitted a migrated of land animals, numerous examples of exchanges between Africa and Europe during the messinian have been found. With the sudden Plioceneflooding, animals stranded on the Mediterranean islands would become isolated and develop endemism. Other usual aspects of the present Mediterranean land faunas may also be related to the unusual...