That Time the Mediterranean Sea Disappeared

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How could a body of water as big as the Mediterranean just...disappear? It would take decades and more than 1,000 research studies to even start to figure out the cause -- or causes -- of one of the greatest vanishing acts in Earth’s history.
Special thanks to everyone at the MEDSALT project, including Aaron Micallef, Daniel Garcia-Castellanos, Angelo Camerlenghi, and Luca Mariani, for allowing us to use their incredible graphics and videos in this episode. Check out their work here: medsalt.eu/ and the full version of their incredible recreation of the MSC and the Zanclean Flood here: • Zanclean Flood of the ...
This episode was written by Gabi Serrato Marks!
And thanks as always to Ceri Thomas ( / alphynix , Julio Lacerda ( / juliotheartist ) and Franz Anthony (franzanth.com/) for their wonderful paleoart used in this episode.
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
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References: docs.google.com/document/d/1N...

[@atvaddiction9621]

New hypothesis: the giant beavers dammed it up

[@dinocharlie1]

Eons every video: "Here's one theory"

[@lucasbaker349]

Subtle brag, my grandfather was a key member of the original team to discover the Mediterranean had dried up. It had something to do with looking for oil, and finding what looked like a river valley extending from the Nile river delta on the sea floor, along with what looked like multiple deltas under the sea.

[@Zia01023]

This makes me wonder about the salt deposits and a story my mom used to tell us long ago.

[@diebesgrab]

“it could possibly happen again”

[@sambeck2510]

The illustration for that rabbit looks like a capybara

[@gregoryeatroff8608]

There's an award-winning science fiction story called "Down in the Bottomlands" about humans evolving in a world where the Mediterranean never refilled.

[@gaucidaniel1444]

Her explanations are so easy -to-follow and drift so well from one point to the next

[@MrAtrophy]

I don't know what I want more a giant rabbit , or a tiny hippo.

[@mirhasanoddname]

This sole phenomena happened during 600.000 years... it truly feels like a slap to the face how short is our time on Earth compared to it's history

[@TheHaz84]

Small correction, in the video the presenter mentions that the last time Sicily and Malta were connected was during the MSC (~5 Mya), but we know that there was a land bridge connecting the islands during the peak of the last ice age (~ 20 Kya).

[@smacpost3]

I once found a giant dust bunny in the geographic zone between my bed and the wall.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

"Tectonic shifts let the water flow back in."

[@MattMajcan]

wow that graphic showing the flow of water through the medditerranian was awesome

[@anxiousfoodperson8116]

"They named this big bunny nuralagus rex"

[@danielmcwhirter]

It would have been nice to also mention how the sand and silt blown out of the dry Mediterranean abyss covered north Africa's mountains and valleys to create the Sahara. What I recall from National Geographic about sixty years ago was that this closure and dry-out occurred seven times over the geologic record. And I just realized that our area of Texas, south of the Buried Ouachita mountains, has been under the sea seven times, per the geological record between the surface and the metamorphic basement. Some believe the apparent basement (metamorphic rock) is actually overthrusted by tectonic plate movements on top of even older sediments (the Buried Ouachita mountains once stood high like the Appalachians) which could be rich in gas and oil.

[@ontaka5997]

This giant bunny must have been the rabbit that massacred the knights in the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

[@LPArabia]

The American football field, a scientific unit of length and area.

[@corey_the_bird3086]

“It would take decades...” that doesn’t seem like enough ti... “...and lots of research...” ...ohhhh they were talking about something else

[@sheriherrick4420]

I absolutely LOVE these videos! I LOVE learning about just about everything (now that I'm an adult) and the way these are put together and the people who are narrating do it in a way that people of all ages can understand and makes it more interesting to keep people's attention. They are just long enough! Thank you all for the hard work you put into all these videos & keep them coming please!