Prehistoric Joe reported in April 2026 that the Zanclean Flood, when the Atlantic Ocean drowned an entire sea. Approximately 5.33 million years ago, long before anything resembling human civilization existed, the Mediterranean Sea was gone. Not reduced. Not partially dried. Gone.
A geological event called the Messinian Salinity Crisis had sealed off the Strait of Gibraltar, cutting the Mediterranean basin from the Atlantic Ocean. Over hundreds of thousands of years, evaporation did what evaporation does. The water disappeared, leaving behind a vast desert basin stretching from modern-day Spain to the shores of Lebanon.
Salt deposits hundreds of meters thick carpeted the floor. Temperatures in the deepest sections, nearly 5 kilometers below the surrounding continental shelves, would have reached extremes incompatible with complex life. The Mediterranean wasn't a sea. It was an abyss.
Prehistoric Joe examines geological and climatic anomalies that radically reshaped Earth’s geography. These events, ranging from massive floods to sudden volcanic winters, fundamentally altered the trajectory of human history by destroying environments and forcing early communities to relocate, adapt, or perish.
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