Geology is more than just studying the breed. Thanks to the developing technology, scientists reconstruct the Earth's makeup in more detail, finding how landscapes and oceans looked millions of years ago.
An exciting geological event is the drying of the seas, where the reservoir is cut off from the open ocean and slowly evaporate, leaving behind huge salt deserts. It is known that the Mediterranean Sea ran out about 6 million years ago and was filled only during a dramatic flood on Zanclean, remaining mainly dry for almost 700,000 years.
Now researchers from the University of Science and Technology of King Abdullah (Kaust) in Tuval, Saudi Arabia, found evidence that the same phenomenon occurred in the Red Sea about 6.2 million years ago. Originally connected with the Mediterranean near today's Suez Canal, the Red Sea joined the world oceans through a catastrophic southern flood, which was cut out by the Bab El-Mandab Strait, which we know today.
Read more: Ancient migration routes that were swallowed by the sea, once led the ancient people outside Africa
Massive flood revived the Red Sea
After the tectonic shifts cut off the connection with the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, the pool became an extensive closed water body bordering what is now Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In them studyPublished in Natural communication Earth and the environmentThe Kaust team used seismic visualization, microfossial analysis and geochemical dating methods to show that the Red Sea has completely dried up for about 100,000 years.
A volcanic crest blocked from the Indian Ocean in the south, the pool remained supposed to a huge flood about 6.2 million years ago, did not register it with sea water – and life.
“Our conclusions show that the Red Sea basin writes one of the most extreme environmental events on Earth when it has completely dried up, and then suddenly reflected about 6.2 million years ago,” said the leading author of the Pence of Pence Caust in Press statementThe field “The flood was transformed by the pool, restored the marine conditions and established a long connection of the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.”
Sea life flourishes in the Red Sea today
The Red Sea was born about 30 million years ago, when the African plate began to separate from the Arab plate. What began as a chain of lakes along a narrow valley is ultimately connected with the Mediterranean after about 7 million years. The fossils of this period reveal a flourishing marine life until salinity and evaporation rise, they again did not leave the Sukhoy basin after the Mediterranean compound was torn.
Today, coral reefs align the coastal lines of the Red Sea, supported by his connection with the Indian Ocean, which constantly replenishes him with sea water. Traces of the flood, which revived the Red Sea, remain visible: an underwater canyon 200 mile long, carved by streams of water in a hurry 6.2 million years ago.
Earth oceans are stable
The drying of the Red Sea actually ended almost a million years before the Mission crisis in the Mediterranean came to an end, emphasizing how these extreme events unfolded in different terms.
“This article adds to us knowledge about processes that form and expand the oceans on Earth. It also supports the main position of Kaust in the research of the Red Sea, ”said the co-author and professor of Caust Abdulkader al-Afifi.
According to the press, the Red Sea serves as a living laboratory to study how the oceans are formed, how massive saline deposits accumulate and how climate and tectonics form sea environments for millions of years. Its history emphasizes the stability of the oceans of the Earth: even after he experienced extreme drying, the pool returned as a flourishing ecosystem, offering scientists a key idea of the global changes in the ocean.
Read more: Deep impulses near Africa break the continent into parts, creating a new ocean
Article Sources
Our authors c Discovermagazine.com Use reviewed research and high -quality sources for our articles, and our editors are a review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. View the sources used below for this article:
