Israeli Scientists Discover Ancient Submarine Canyon in Mediterranean

Israeli geologists have unearthed a colossal submarine canyon deep in the Mediterranean Sea, revealing insights into a prehistoric geological event. The discovery, made by the Geological Survey of Israel (GSI), locates the canyon in the Levant Basin, near the Eratosthenes Seamount, some 120 km south of Cyprus and 250 km northwest of Israel’s coast. This significant find dates back about 6 million years to the Messinian geologic timescale, measuring 10 km in width and 0.5 km in depth. The GSI, operating under the Israeli Energy Ministry, suggests that the canyon’s formation coincided with the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, a period marked by extreme salinity levels in the Mediterranean’s deeper basins. This crisis led to the Mediterranean Sea becoming largely disconnected from the global oceans, resulting in the evaporation of seawater and the deposition of a thick layer of salt. The discovery sheds new light on the ancient environmental conditions of the region, offering a window into the Earth’s geological history.