The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about 2,500,000 km2 (970,000 sq mi), representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only 14 km (9 mi) wide.
A megatsunami is a very large wave created by a large, sudden displacement of material into a body of water.
In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water. During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes. Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars. Landslides, lahars, and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes, which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded. Lakes also form behind glacial moraines or ice dams, which can collapse and create outburst floods.
The Strait of Sicily is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia. The strait is about 145 kilometres (90 mi) wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western Mediterranean Sea, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The maximum depth is 316 meters (1,037 ft). The island of Pantelleria lies in the middle of the strait.
Graham Island or Isola Ferdinandea was an island in the Mediterranean Sea near Sicily that has, on more than one occasion, risen above the surface of the Mediterranean via volcanic action and soon thereafter been washed away. Since 300 BC this cycle of events has occurred four times. The island was part of the submarine volcano Empedocles, 30 km (19 mi) south of Sicily, which is one of a number of underwater volcanoes known as the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia.
Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs.
In the Messinian salinity crisis the Mediterranean Sea went into a cycle of partial or nearly complete desiccation (drying-up) throughout the latter part of the Messinian age of the Miocene epoch, from 5.96 to 5.33 Ma. It ended with the Zanclean flood, when the Atlantic reclaimed the basin.
The Zanclean is the lowest stage or earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma and 3.6 ± 0.005 Ma. It is preceded by the Messinian Age of the Miocene Epoch, and followed by the Piacenzian Age.
A fault scarp is a small step-like offset of the ground surface in which one side of a fault has shifted vertically in relation to the other. The topographic expression of fault scarps results from the differential erosion of rocks of contrasting resistance and the displacement of land surface by movement along the fault. Differential movement and erosion may occur either along older inactive geologic faults, or recent active faults.
Spartel Bank or Majuán Bank is a submerged former island located in the Strait of Gibraltar near Cape Spartel and the Spartel Sill. Its highest point is currently 56 metres (184 ft) below the surface. Spartel Bank is one of several seamounts in the bed of Gibraltar Strait; similar but deeper seamounts are found at Camarinal Sill and further east. These represent landslide blocks which slid south from the north bank of the Strait of Gibraltar when the strait was formed, possibly through erosion by inflowing waters of the Zanclean flood.
The Mediterranean Ridge is a wide ridge in the bed of the Mediterranean Sea, running along a rough quarter circle from Calabria, south of Crete, to the southwest corner of Turkey.
The Eratosthenes Seamount or Eratosthenes Tablemount is a seamount in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Levantine basin about 100 kilometres (60 mi) south of western Cyprus. Unlike most seamounts, it is a carbonate platform, not a volcano. It is a large, submerged massif, about 120 by 80 kilometres. Its peak lies at the depth of 690 metres (2,300 ft) and it rises 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) above the surrounding seafloor, which is located at the depth of up to 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) and is a part of the Herodotus Abyssal Plain. It is one of the largest features on the Eastern Mediterranean seafloor.
The 1693 Sicily earthquake was a natural disaster that struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, then a territory part of the Crown of Aragon by the Kings of Spain Calabria and Malta, on 11 January at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was preceded by a damaging foreshock on 9 January. The main quake had an estimated magnitude of 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, the most powerful in recorded Italian history, and a maximum intensity of XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, destroying at least 70 towns and cities, seriously affecting an area of 5,600 square kilometres (2,200 sq mi) and causing the death of about 60,000 people.
The Azores–Gibraltar transform fault (AGFZ), also called a fault zone and a fracture zone, is a major seismic zone in the eastern Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and the Strait of Gibraltar. It is the product of the complex interaction between the African, Eurasian, and Iberian plates. The AGFZ produced these large-magnitude earthquakes and, consequently, a number of large tsunamis: 1755 Lisbon, 1761 Lisbon, 1816 North Atlantic, 1941 Gloria Fault earthquake, 1969 Horseshoe and 1975.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Oceanography.
The geology of Sicily records the collision of the Eurasian and the African plates during westward-dipping subduction of the African slab since late Oligocene. Major tectonic units are the Hyblean foreland, the Gela foredeep, the Apenninic-Maghrebian orogen, and the Calabrian Arc. The orogen represents a fold-thrust belt that folds Mesozoic carbonates, while a major volcanic unit is found in an eastern portion of the island. The collision of Africa and Eurasia is a retreating subduction system, such that the descending Africa is falling away from Eurasia, and Eurasia extends and fills the space as the African plate falls into the mantle, resulting in volcanic activity in Sicily and the formation of Tyrrhenian slab to the north.
The Zanclean flood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago. This flooding ended the Messinian salinity crisis and reconnected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, although it is possible that even before the flood there were partial connections to the Atlantic Ocean. The re-connection marks the beginning of the Zanclean age which is the name given to the earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene.
Daniel Garcia-Castellanos is a Spanish scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) who investigates in the field of geophysics and is known for his theory about the catastrophic flooding of the Mediterranean Sea in the recent geological past, an event known as the Zanclean flood. Other scientific contributions deal with the evolution of the Earth's relief as a result of the deep geodynamic phenomena of the Earth’s interior interacting with the erosion and climate at the surface.
Coral Patch Seamount is a seamount between Madeira and mainland Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is an elongated 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 70 kilometres (43 mi) wide mountain that rises to a depth of about 645 metres (2,116 ft), with nine volcanic cones on its summit. It has steeper southern slopes and a gentle northern slope. To its west lies Ampére Seamount, and together with several neighbouring seamounts it is one of the Horseshoe Seamounts.
Il-Blata tal-Melħ is a landmark in the north-western region of the island of Malta, close to Rabat and Mġarr. The name Il-Blata tal-Melħ can be translated as the Salt Rock, named after a series of salt deposits in the limestone at this location.
