What happens when an entire sea vanishes? In this solo deep-dive, geophysicist Dr. Jeffrey Zurek explores the Messinian Salinity Crisis, a period nearly 6 million years ago when the Mediterranean basin transformed from a teeming ocean into a scorching desert. Breaking down the research process from the discovery of three-kilometer-thick salt layers by 1970s deep-sea drilling, to the numerical models that describe the largest flood known. The Zanclean Flood which likely reshaped an entire planet's chemistry and biosphere.

Myth of Hercules: How ancient Roman naturalists like Pliny the Elder unknowingly recorded geological truths

Salt Discovery: How the 1970 ocean drilling program threw the scientific community into "choppy waters" by f ...