Other-waters

The Mediterranean Sea is a part of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land, on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km² (965 000 mi²). It is also called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea in oceanography to distinguish it from other mediterranean seas in the world.

It was a superhighway of transport in ancient times, allowing for trade and cultural exchange between emergent peoples of the region — Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and the Middle-East (Arab/Persian/Semitic) cultures. The history of the Mediterranean is important in understanding the origin and development of Western Civilization.

Name

The term Mediterranean derives from the Latin mediterraneus, 'inland' (medius, 'middle' + terra, 'land, earth'), in Greek "mesogeios".

The Mediterranean Sea has been known by a number of alternative names throughout human history. It was, for example, commonly called Mare Nostrum (Latin, Our Sea) by the Romans. In the Bible, it is referred to as the Great Sea or the Western Sea. In modern Hebrew, it is called "ha-Yam ha-Tichon" (הים התיכון), "the middle sea", a literal adaptation of the German equivalent Mittelmeer. In Turkish, it is Akdeniz, "the white sea".

Currently, "The Med" is a common English language contraction for the Mediterranean Sea and its surrounding regions when employed in informal speech.

Geography

The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar on the west and to the Sea of Marmara and Black Sea, by the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, on the east. The Sea of Marmara is often considered a part of the Mediterranean Sea, whereas the Black Sea is generally not. The man-made Suez Canal in the south-east connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea.

Tides are very limited in the Mediterranean as a result of the narrow connection with the ocean.

The Mediterranean climate is generally one of wet winters and hot, dry summers. Special crops of the region are olives, grapes, oranges, tangerines, and cork. The region has a long history of civilization.

Large islands in the Mediterranean include:

• Cyprus, Crete, Euboea and Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean
• Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Malta in the central Mediterranean
• Ibiza, Majorca and Minorca (the Balearic Islands) in the western Mediterranean

Bordering countries

Modern states bordering the Mediterranean Sea are:

• Europe (from west to east):
  • Spain,
  • France,
  • Monaco,
  • Italy,
  • the island state of Malta,
  • Slovenia,
  • Croatia,
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina,
  • Serbia and Montenegro,
  • Albania,
  • Greece and
  • Turkey.
• Asia (from north to south):
  • Turkey,
  • Syria,
  • the island state of Cyprus,
  • Lebanon,
  Israel,the Gaza Strip andEgypt.
• Africa (from east to west):
  • Egypt,
  • Libya,
  • Tunisia,
  • Algeria and
  • Morocco

Subdivisions

The Mediterranean Sea is sub-divided into a number of smaller seas, each with their own designation (from west to east):

• the Alboran Sea, between Spain and Morocco,
• the Ligurian Sea between Corsica and Liguria (Italy),
• the Tyrrhenian Sea enclosed by Sardinia, Italian peninsula and Sicily,
• the Adriatic Sea between the Italian peninsula and the Dalmatian coast,
• the Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece,
• the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, with
  • the Thracian Sea in its north,
  • the Mirtoon Sea between the Cyclades and the Peloponnesos,
  • the Sea of Crete north of Crete, and
  • the Sea of Marmara between the Aegean and Black Seas.

In addition to the seas, a number of gulfs and straits are also recognised:

• the Gulf of Lyon, south of France
• the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and the toe of Italy
• the Gulf of Taranto, southern Italy,
• the Gulf of Haifa, between Haifa and Akko, Israel
• the Gulf of Sidra, between Tunisia and Cyrenaica (eastern Libya)
• the Strait of Sicily, between Sicily and Tunisia
• the Corsica Channel, between Corsica and Italy
• the Strait of Bonifacio, between Sardinia and Corsica

Geology

The geology of the Mediterranean is complex, involving the break-up and then collision of the African and Eurasian plates and the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

Sediment samples from below the deep seafloor of the Mediterranean Sea, which include evaporite minerals, soils, and fossil plants, show that about 5.9 million years ago in the late Miocene period the precursors of the modern Strait of Gibraltar closed tight and the Mediterranean Sea evaporated into a deep dry basin with a bottom over two miles below the world ocean level. The Sea was reduced to several shallow lakes with varying salinity. Even now the Mediterranean is saltier than the North Atlantic because of its near isolation by the Straits of Gibraltar and its high rate of evaporation. If the Strait of Gibraltar closes again, which is very likely to happen in the near geological future (though extremely distant on a human time scale), the Mediterranean would once again dry up.

If the Strait of Gibraltar (and the Suez Canal) would close now, the Mediterranean would evaporate dry in about a thousand years.

The first solid evidence for the ancient desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea came in the summer of 1970, when geologists aboard the deep sea research and drilling ship Glomar Challenger brought up drill cores containing gypsum, anhydrite, rock salt, and various other evaporite minerals that often form from drying of brine or seawater. One drill core contained a wind-blown cross-bedded deposit of deep-sea foraminiferal ooze that had dried into dust and been blown about by sandstorms and ended up in a brine lake. These layers were alternated with layers containing marine fossils, indicating a succession of drying and flooding periods. Other evidence of drying comes from the remains of many (now submerged) canyons that were cut into the sides of the dry Mediterranean basin by rivers flowing down to the burning hot dry desert of the abyssal plain. For example, the Nile cut its bed down to several hundred feet below sea level at Aswan and 8000 feet (2,400 m) below sea level under Cairo. The area underwent repeated flooding and desiccation over a 700,000 year span. About 5.4 million years ago at the start of the Pliocene period the barrier at the Strait of Gibraltar broke, permanently reflooding the basin.

The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1,500 m and the deepest recorded point is 5,267 m (Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea). The coastline extends for 46,000 km. A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions (which in turn are divided into subdivisions), the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Western Mediterranean covers an area of about 0.85 million km² and the Eastern Mediterranean about 1.65 million km².

In the last few centuries, humankind has done much to alter Mediterranean geology. Structures have been built all along the coastlines, exacerbating and rerouting erosional patterns. Many pollution-producing boats travel the sea that unbalance the natural chemical ratios of the region. Beaches have been mismanaged, and the overuse of the sea's natural and marine resources continues to be a problem. This misuse speeds along and/or confounds natural processes. The actual geography has also been altered by the building of dams and canals.

The Mediterranean was once thought to be the remnant of the Tethys Ocean. It is now known to be a structurally younger ocean basin known as Neotethys. Neotethys formed during the Late Triassic and Ealy Jurassic rifting of the African and Eurasian plates.

There have been theories that the Mediterranean reflooded after Man reached the area, causing the Biblical Flood legend. However, the Strait of Gibraltar is too deep to have dried out in the Ice Age, and the Flood legend was likely caused by the Black Sea re-flooding.

External links

• Environment and Development in the Mediterranean Region

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