The Mediterranean Sea didn't exist 6M years ago. It had dried up. Then a megaflood filled it in months, killing everything in its path. What happened? Why?
One of the consequence of the salinity crisis was a tsunami which occurred 40 years ago in Antibes, south of France. Long story short :
- during the crisis, the Var river dug a canyon below today sea level
- after the mega flood, this canyon was filled with unstable mud and sediments
- 40 years ago, the Nice airport was extended over the sea by pouring stuff in the sea and building above
- ... until a huge (+100km long) underwater sediment avalanche suddenly occurred, making the construction site to collapse in the sea, engulfing the workers, and creating a tsunami which would flood the city in front, Antibes
Because of the high level of corruption in this french region, and because some high ranking people did not want to see their incompetence to much discussed on the public arena, most of the reports were classified for one century.
So great article Tomas. I've always believed this may happen somehow in Caspian Sea as it is 28m below sea level, linking Don and Volga rivers, although they already have a channel link.
This may solve a bit the rise of sea level in the world, but a complete disaster for the coast cities in Carpian Sea, specially in Azerbaijan.
The caspian has traditionally been below sea level, just not as low as it is today. I assume cristian means if we got it to sea level it might flood some coastal cities
Sure! Of course not unless a natural disaster. I mean by the human action, building some kind of huuuuge channel. The highest land elevation in the lowest path between both seas is like 27m height. It would connect de Caspian sea to the rest of the seas in the world (like the Mediterranean was in Tomas's article).
Of course not. I'm talking about connecting Caspian Sea and Black Sea with artificial channels digging the land, or artificially pumping the water, so ONLY Caspian Sea would raise 28 meters. Maybe I don't express myself correctly.
The Amazon video looks great, I enjoyed it and shared it!
About the Mediterranean, you might have come across this comic (XKCD) which makes a very interesting story also linked to rivers growing dramatically: http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/
I did find the comic indeed, and I'm impressed by the amount of work involved and the novelty of the format. But it was so tedious to go through it? So I stopped. Am I missing something?
I think the comic worked well when it was released, maybe not so good afterwards. The cadence between frames was 30'-60', and it got people hooked at that moment. After that, you need special viewers to revisit it and it will still need like 40' to see it all. It's still one of the instant classic strips of Randall Munroe in XKCD.
Unless I missed it, this article didn't really explain why the megaflood happened, just how it happened. I'm more pointing this out not to be pedantic or anything, but because I'm genuinely curious about what the theories are for this and your subheading seemed to suggest that would be brought up.
I go into the detail of exactly what happened in the premium article this week.
But just to clarify: what do you mean by "why"? This is a geological event, the why is "because tectonic plates did this and that, and then rain did this and that, and water levels were here, and the result of all that stuff is that it broke". Just wanted to confirm this is the "why" you're talking about.
If you're talking about a "spiritual why", I also cover that in the premium article
The tectonic plates were explained as the reason for why the Mediterranean closed and the water started drying up, and then it went into rivers being carved (which was honestly super cool to read about), then salt, and then the (initial) megaflood. The article jumps to "water tore furiously through the Strait of Gibraltar" but I kept waiting for the "why" of it, at least based on what the latest science is saying, because it seemed like something that was going to be explained, but it never got there.
Plate tectonics continuing to do their thing makes sense as an explanation though, thanks for letting me know! I appreciate it.
Thomas.....you keep getting better and better! I'd love to see more on how geological formations came about.....like the Grand Canyon for example.
Oh man, you're on for a great surprise next week!
One of the consequence of the salinity crisis was a tsunami which occurred 40 years ago in Antibes, south of France. Long story short :
- during the crisis, the Var river dug a canyon below today sea level
- after the mega flood, this canyon was filled with unstable mud and sediments
- 40 years ago, the Nice airport was extended over the sea by pouring stuff in the sea and building above
- ... until a huge (+100km long) underwater sediment avalanche suddenly occurred, making the construction site to collapse in the sea, engulfing the workers, and creating a tsunami which would flood the city in front, Antibes
Some links in french :
https://www.nicematin.com/faits-divers/video-il-y-a-40-ans-un-monstrueux-raz-de-maree-devastait-la-cote-dazur-et-tuait-11-personnes-175661
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami_de_l'a%C3%A9roport_de_Nice
Because of the high level of corruption in this french region, and because some high ranking people did not want to see their incompetence to much discussed on the public arena, most of the reports were classified for one century.
Fou!
So great article Tomas. I've always believed this may happen somehow in Caspian Sea as it is 28m below sea level, linking Don and Volga rivers, although they already have a channel link.
This may solve a bit the rise of sea level in the world, but a complete disaster for the coast cities in Carpian Sea, specially in Azerbaijan.
Ah, I’ll be posting on this soon!
??? Water doesn't blow upwards so I don't see how the Caspian could flood.
The caspian has traditionally been below sea level, just not as low as it is today. I assume cristian means if we got it to sea level it might flood some coastal cities
OK, I just don’t see how it can get to sea level. Water from the world ocean won’t travel to higher elevations to them flow down to the Caspian.
That’s the attitude! Curiosity.
I just finished writing about this topic! Publishing on it next week probably
Sure! Of course not unless a natural disaster. I mean by the human action, building some kind of huuuuge channel. The highest land elevation in the lowest path between both seas is like 27m height. It would connect de Caspian sea to the rest of the seas in the world (like the Mediterranean was in Tomas's article).
So vessels can go between them, but I doubt even global warming will raise sea levels 27 meters (many many coastal cities in trouble if it does).
Of course not. I'm talking about connecting Caspian Sea and Black Sea with artificial channels digging the land, or artificially pumping the water, so ONLY Caspian Sea would raise 28 meters. Maybe I don't express myself correctly.
wonderful.
The Amazon video looks great, I enjoyed it and shared it!
About the Mediterranean, you might have come across this comic (XKCD) which makes a very interesting story also linked to rivers growing dramatically: http://geekwagon.net/projects/xkcd1190/
Thank you!
I did find the comic indeed, and I'm impressed by the amount of work involved and the novelty of the format. But it was so tedious to go through it? So I stopped. Am I missing something?
I think the comic worked well when it was released, maybe not so good afterwards. The cadence between frames was 30'-60', and it got people hooked at that moment. After that, you need special viewers to revisit it and it will still need like 40' to see it all. It's still one of the instant classic strips of Randall Munroe in XKCD.
That makes sense
Check http://geoledgers.org/Asia/Himalaya/Himalayan.html then check http://geoledgers.org/Europe/Gibraltar/Gibraltar.html
Comments?
Thanks for the effort on recording the videos 🙏🙏🙏
Unless I missed it, this article didn't really explain why the megaflood happened, just how it happened. I'm more pointing this out not to be pedantic or anything, but because I'm genuinely curious about what the theories are for this and your subheading seemed to suggest that would be brought up.
Hi!
I go into the detail of exactly what happened in the premium article this week.
But just to clarify: what do you mean by "why"? This is a geological event, the why is "because tectonic plates did this and that, and then rain did this and that, and water levels were here, and the result of all that stuff is that it broke". Just wanted to confirm this is the "why" you're talking about.
If you're talking about a "spiritual why", I also cover that in the premium article
Yeah, that's the why.
The tectonic plates were explained as the reason for why the Mediterranean closed and the water started drying up, and then it went into rivers being carved (which was honestly super cool to read about), then salt, and then the (initial) megaflood. The article jumps to "water tore furiously through the Strait of Gibraltar" but I kept waiting for the "why" of it, at least based on what the latest science is saying, because it seemed like something that was going to be explained, but it never got there.
Plate tectonics continuing to do their thing makes sense as an explanation though, thanks for letting me know! I appreciate it.