Zanclean flood

Zanclean flood

1. (geology) A theorised flood, 5.33 million years ago, of the Mediterranean basin, then dry due to the Messinian salinity crisis, triggered by its reconnection with the Atlantic Ocean, that marks the transition from the Miocene epoch (Messinian age) to the Pliocene epoch (Zanclean age).

   Synonyms: Zanclean deluge, terminal Messinian flood

   • 2018, Rik Houthuys, Johan Matthijs, “14: The Hageland Hills, Legacies of the Depositional Architecture of the Miocene Diest Sands”, in Alain Demoulin, editor, Landscapes and Landforms of Belgium and Luxembourg, Springer, page 247:

     Tying a supposed post-Diest Sands fast sea-level fall to the event of the Zanclean flood is inconsistent with available ages. The drop in global sea level entailed by the still debated Zanclean flood, which would have ended the Messinian salinity crisis (base level fall of 1.5—2 km in a landlocked Mediterranean Sea) by breaching the Gibraltar land barrier and refilling the Mediterranean basin has been dated at 5.33 Ma (Krijgsman, et al. 1999).

   • 2020, Samuel Jay Keyser, The Mental Life of Modernism, The MIT Press, page x:

     Think of it as the Zanclean flood, the flood that more than 5 million years ago filled the empty cavity where the Mediterranean now sits.

   • 2021, Osama Rahil Shaltami, Fares F. Fares, Hwedi Errishi, Farag M. EL Oshebi, Isotope Geochronology of the Exposed Rocks in the Cyrenaica Basin, NE Libya, Springer, page 123:

     This formation represents the Zanclean flood that coincided with the end of the MSC event in the Cyrenaica Basin.

• Messinian salinity crisis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia