When was the Mediterranean a dry basin?



We know the Mediterranean today as a huge sea off the coast of Europe. However, the Mediterranean was not always like that. Approximately 5 million years ago, the Mediterranean was a dry basin. Movements in the Earth’s crust opened up the Gibraltar Straits between the continental areas which are now Africa and Europe. The Atlantic Ocean would have poured through this new opening into the dry basin. The result would have been an enormous waterfall, nearly 800 metres high. So much water poured in from the Atlantic that the Mediterranean Sea was created in only a few years.










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Of course, through time the shape of the continents will continue to change, and new seas will form; some could even join together. 




 



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When was the earth formed?



No one knows for certain when the Earth was formed exactly. However, scientists have reasoned that it probably formed about 6,000 million years ago.



The most scientific reasoning for the creation of Earth is that it began as a huge ball of hot gases which cooled to form the planet. Seas of dissolved chemicals would have covered the land, and the air would have been an atmosphere of different gases. The atmosphere was thought to have consisted of swirling gaseous clouds which most likely caused huge electrical storms.



The poisonous gases in the atmosphere must have reacted to produce oxygen, which triggered off the first beginnings of life on Earth.










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As Earth cooled down, it gave off clouds of steam and gas. The moisture in these clouds eventually turned to rain, which formed the first seas.




Picture Credit : Google