Paleoclimatology Liveblog: Two Problematic Bathtubs - The Mediterranean

Paleoclimatology Liveblogs: Two Problematic Bathtubs – The Mediterranean Ahh, the Mediterranean: sun, sea, a beautiful subtropical climate, last bastion of the Tethys ocean—

--thing that requires different handling of some paleotemperature proxies because it’s different from other oceans†—

--and ticking time bomb of climatological weird.

You see, on an oceanic scale, the Med is small. And it’s kinda like two bathtubs stuck together. Two bathtubs with problems.

( Two Problematic Bathtubs: The Shape of the Med )

( The Green Sahara )

( The Messinian Salinity Crisis: I Could Have Sworn I Saw A Sea Here! )

† There is a type of archaea/single celled organism called Thaumarcheota, where you can use what chemicals it produces to tell the temperature. And in the Mediterranean, it doesn’t quite behave how you’d expect.

‡ CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT ALERT: How much monsoons can move is, uh, a matter of great debate. That involves a lot of atmospheric dynamicists saying ‘It’s simple, really!’ while paleoclimatologists hold their head in their hands saying ‘My entire life is a lie.’ So, take any statement about monsoons moving any great distance with a grain of salt. (To my understanding, a lot of the Green Sahara period is less the monsoon moving, and more it getting strong, but I could be wildly wrong here.)

*CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT ALERT: There is some evidence that the Mediterranean completely dried up, like the hippo bones found in some Mediterranean islands. Those hippos could have crossed dry salt flats, but not brackish water. So, ‘how dry did the Mediterranean?’ get does not have a cut-and-dried answer.