Category:Mediterranean Basin



Movement of the African and European plates has left the Mediterranean land locked. Combined with the drier atmosphere, this has resulted in the Mediterranean Sea largely drying out.

Global temperatures are five or six degrees Celsius below the present day. There are glaciers in the Alps; and beyond them is the Mediterranean basin.

This is 6,500ft or 2000m below sea level. It has brine lakes and salt flats surrounded by karst - dry, ridged limestone. There are deep cracks in the limestone, called grykes.

When it rarely rains, the surface of the salt turns to a salty mush.

Mountains - once islands - rise out of the plains. They were once Mediterranean islands. Otherwise the surface is completely flat and white. Smudges of red are made by salt-loving bacteria.

The salt flats shimmer. Here and there are lakes of very salty water - ten times the salinity of seawater. They have no fish - only some algae and bacteria can survive. Clouds of brine flies flourish here. In Southern Europe, beyond the icecaps, there are clusters of rowan and birch trees.