Fact check: Did the Mediterranean go dry and then flood 5.3 million years ago?

1. Summary of the results

Yes, scientific evidence strongly confirms that the Mediterranean Sea experienced a dramatic drying and flooding event known as the Messinian salinity crisis. The crisis began around 5.96 million years ago when the Mediterranean basin was cut off from the Atlantic Ocean ^[1]. The basin dried out within approximately 1,000 years, creating a deep depression 3-5 km below normal sea level ^[1]. The crisis ended dramatically with the Zanclean flood around 5.33 million years ago ^{[1] [2] [2]}.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question omits several crucial details about this extraordinary event:

• Scale and Speed of the Flood:
• 90% of the basin flooded within several months to two years ^{[2] [2]}
• Water levels rose at an astounding rate of up to 10 meters per day ^{[2] [2]}
• This may have been the largest flood in planetary history ^[3]
• Geographical Details:
• The sea level dropped by 1.7-2.1 kilometers in the eastern Mediterranean and about 850 meters in the western sector ^[4]
• The flood created a massive 200-km channel when the land bridge between Spain and Morocco was breached ^[3]
• The Mediterranean lost up to 70% of its total water volume during the crisis ^[4]
• Scientific Context:
• The event involved complex interactions between tectonic settings, climate fluctuations, and sea-level changes ^[5]
• Massive salt deposits formed during this period ^[5]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question oversimplifies what was actually a complex geological event. While there is scientific consensus about the fundamental occurrence of the crisis ^[6], ongoing debates continue about precise details ^[6]. The question's simple framing might lead readers to underestimate the extraordinary nature and complexity of this event, which involved multiple phases and geological processes over hundreds of thousands of years ^[5]. The event was not just a simple case of drying and flooding, but rather a complex crisis involving significant changes in water chemistry, geology, and regional climate patterns.