The Mediterranean Sea, today a glimmering cradle of civilizations, was once a huge, parched desert. Salt flats shimmered ...

At the western edge of the Mediterranean basin, a narrow land bridge once sealed off the Atlantic. We now call it the ...

A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar.

A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar.

Imagine the Mediterranean Sea dried up. Then imagine the Atlantic refilling it in less than two years. That seems to be what happened 5 million years ago.

Sicily (the large island next to the ‘toe’ of Italy) still forms part of a divide between the Mediterranean’s darker basins, shaded in deeper blue (GEBCO / National Oceanographic Centre, UK ...

Is it possible for you to survive in the Late Miocene Epoch? In the Late Miocene Epoch, tectonic forces uplifted the Earth's crust, blocking off the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. A ...

A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar. According to this theory, oceanic water rushed faster than a speeding car ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

They named that age “Messinian” and the drying up eventually became known as the Messinian salinity crisis. In the 1970s, scientists for the first time drilled deep below the Mediterranean into ...

A little over 5 million years ago, water from the Atlantic Ocean found a way through the present-day Strait of Gibraltar. According to this theory, oceanic water rushed faster than a speeding car ...