[Rockhounds] New Evidence Bolsters Theory of Megaflood That Refilled the Mediterranean Millions of Years Ago

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Millions of years ago, the Mediterranean Sea evaporated. It may have then
been refilled by the largest flooding event ever experienced on Earth.

An international team of researchers has uncovered new evidence supporting
the Zanclean megaflood, a theorized event that refilled the Mediterranean
Sea after the Messinian Salinity Crisis had transformed it into a dry,
salty landscape. As detailed in a December 28 study
<https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01972-w> published in the
journal *Communications Earth & Environment*, the researchers combined
newly identified geological features in Sicily with geophysical data and
computer models to potentially provide the most extensive look into the
ancient megaflood known to date.

“The Zanclean megaflood was an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, with
discharge rates and flow velocities dwarfing any other known floods in
Earth’s history,” Aaron Micallef of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute in California, who led the study, said in a University of
Southampton statement
<https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2025/01/new-evidence-suggests-megaflood-refilled-the-mediterranean-sea-five-million-years-ago.page>.
“Our research provides the most compelling evidence yet of this
extraordinary event.”

https://gizmodo.com/new-evidence-bolsters-theory-of-ancient-megaflood-that-refilled-the-mediterranean-millions-of-years-ago-2000553581