"Roughly six million years ago, shifting tectonic plates closed the Strait of Gibraltar - a narrow body of water connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean - turning the area into a desertic wasteland. About 700,000 years later, the strait burst open again, and a brutal megaflood filled the Mediterranean in a matter of months. Without that event, we wouldn't have a Mediterranean Sea - and potentially no Roman Empire, no early European development, no Age of Discovery, no Industrial Revolution, and no United States."
"The Mediterranean Sea filled with so much water so quickly because its floor is below sea level, which allowed ocean water to rush in once the Strait of Gibraltar reopened. So the first step to figuring out where we could create more seas is to think about where else in the world we have similar depressions."
The Mediterranean region now combines favorable climate, developed economies, and great coastlines, but it was once a desert after the Strait of Gibraltar closed six million years ago. A megaflood about 700,000 years later refilled the basin in months, producing the Mediterranean Sea and influencing major historical developments. Modern technology could deliberately flood other below-sea-level basins to create similar seas. Identifying candidate depressions requires assessing depth, population density, and geopolitical constraints; examples include parts of the Caspian coastal lowlands and the Dead Sea basin, each with distinct feasibility challenges.
Read at Big Think
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