The Zanclean flood
The Atlantic breaks through Gibraltar and refills the Mediterranean, possibly in a couple of years.
- When
- Known to
- ± 20 thousand years
- Era
- Pliocene, Cenozoic
At 5.33 million years ago the barrier at Gibraltar fails. Erosion of the channel is self-accelerating, and modelling of the incised channel found beneath the strait suggests that most of the basin refilled extraordinarily fast — with peak discharge perhaps a thousand times the Amazon and sea level in the basin rising by metres per day. Some reconstructions have the whole Mediterranean refilling in months to a couple of years. It is the largest flood known in Earth's history, and it marks the base of the Pliocene.