Messinian salinity crisis
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The Messinian salinity crisis was an event in which the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epo
Artistic interpretation of the Mediterranean geography during its evaporative drawdown, after complete disconnection from the Atlantic. The rivers carved deep gorges in the exposed continental margins; the concentration of salt in the remaining water bodies led to rapid precipitation of the salt. The inset evokes the transit of mammals (e.g. camels and mice) from Africa to Iberia across the exposed Gibraltar Strait.
Cones of gypsum, which formed on the sea floor as a result of evaporation. Evaporation of one metre of seawater precipitates around 1 mm of gypsum.
The scale of gypsum formation in the Sorbas Basin (Yesares member). The upward-growing cones suggest precipitation on the sea floor (not within sediments).
Miocene
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The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.04 to 5.333 million years ago. The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell and comes from Ancien
Subdivisions of the Miocene
The Mediterranean during the Late Miocene
Restoration of the volcanic eruption in Harney Basin, of the western US, represented by the Rattlesnake Formation
The dragon blood tree is considered a remnant of the Mio-Pliocene Laurasian subtropical forests that are now almost extinct in North Africa.