Re: dry Meditteranean

chornedsnorkack_at_hushmail.com
Date: 01/17/05 

Date: 17 Jan 2005 08:18:34 -0800

Aidan Karley wrote:
> In article <1105793550.000353.151430@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> wrote:
> > And at 1 metre per year, well, the Mediterranean is about 5000
metres
> > deep, so it cannot dry up faster than 5000 years. Which is why Mono
> > Lake, Aral Sea and Dead Sea also still exist.
> >
> The average depth of the Med is considerably lower than that,
I
> suspect. And the Aral Sea isn't going to be around for very much
> longer. That's on a human time scale.
>
> Your 10kyr time scale to evaporate the Med as much as it will
go
> sounds credible. A bit longer than a human lifetime, but a geological

> eye-blink. This *is* sci.geo.geology.
> Oh, just noticed the cross-posting. Hmmm, what was that series

> of sf books set around the Messanian salt pan?
>
Not that I've heard of. But it is not rec.arts.sf.written. I thought
that rec.arts.sf.science is appropriate for speculations and
sci.geo.geology deals more with things that did actually happen?

As for "eye-blink", remember that a lot of geology forms in seconds to
slightly longer and then stays there for milliards of years. Do not
underestimate transients!

Of course, if there were to form a barrier at Gibraltar just below the
sea level, it would take roughly 60 times more to fill the
Mediterranean with rock salt.