Lecture: The Day The Mediterranean Dried Up. The Messinian Salinity Crisis
Speaker:
Date and Time
19:30 -
Location
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Lecture Description
Abstract: The Messinian Salinity Crisis was a dramatic event between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago (i.e. late Miocene) when the Mediterranean Sea partially to almost completely dried out. The crisis ended with the cataclysmic Zanclean flood, coming from the Straits of Gibraltar, which refilled the basin with water from the Atlantic Ocean. Evidence for the MSC includes massive salt deposits discovered beneath the Mediterranean seafloor and deep, eroded canyons carved by major rivers like the Nile and Rhône. There are also spectacular gypsum deposits around the margins of the Med, well seen in Sicily, Italy and Cyprus, deposited in lagoons, with selenite crystals standing up to 6 metres tall! Rachel has been examining cores drilled by the IODP in the Med and recently a core from the Aegean, searching for links to the Paratethys-Black Sea area to the east, and using various geochemical techniques to monitor changes in water salinity and source during the crisis. The MSC was one of those amazing geological events the Earth has endured, similar to meteorite impacts and major volcanic episodes.
About the speaker: Professor Rachel Flecker is currently Deputy Head of School and was School Education Director between 2017-2020. Her primary areas of investigation include Paleontology, Late Miocene, Mediterranean climate, Oceanography and Sedimentary rock. Rachel Flecker interconnects Monsoon, Climatology, Precipitation and Palaeogeography in the investigation of issues within Late Miocene. Her Mediterranean climate research includes themes of Geochemistry, Deep sea, Evaporite and Global climate
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