Pliocene in the context of "Glyptodon"

The Zanclean flood or Zanclean deluge is theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago.This flooding ended the Messinian salinity crisis and reconnected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, although it is possible that even before the flood there were partial connections to the Atlantic Ocean. The re-connection marks the beginning of the Zanclean age, the name given to the earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene.

According to this model, water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the dried-up basin through the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar. Ninety percent of the Mediterranean Basin flooding occurred abruptly during a period estimated to have been between several months and two years, following low water discharges that could have lasted for several thousand years. Sea level rise in the basin may at times have reached rates greater than 10 metres per day (5 fathom/d; 30 ft/d). Based on the erosion features preserved until modern times under the Pliocene sediment, Garcia-Castellanos et al. estimate that water rushed down a drop of more than 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) with a maximum discharge of about 100 million cubic metres per second (3.5 billion cubic feet per second), three orders of magnitude larger than the present-day Amazon River. Studies of the underground structures at the Strait of Gibraltar show that the flooding channel descended gradually toward the bottom of the basin rather than forming a steep waterfall.

The Pleistocene (/ˈplaɪstəˌsiːn, -stoʊ-/ PLY-stə-seen, -⁠stoh-; referred to colloquially as the Ice Age) is the geological epoch that lasted from c. 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name comes from Ancient Greek πλεῖστος (pleîstos), meaning "most", and καινός (kainós), meaning "new, recent".

The aridification and cooling trends of the preceding Neogene were continued in the Pleistocene. The climate was strongly variable depending on the glacial cycle, oscillating between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacials, with the sea levels being up to 120 metres (390 ft) lower than present at peak glaciation, allowing the periodic connection of Asia and North America via the Beringia land bridge, and the covering of most of northern North America by the large Laurentide Ice Sheet.

The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large, mainly lowland area in southeastern Central Europe, briefly described as a sedimentary basin. Under the geopolitically changed conditions created by World War I and the ensuing Treaty of Trianon, the geomorphological term Pannonian Plain was also used for roughly the same region, referring to the lowlands in the area occupied by the Pannonian Sea during the Pliocene. However, Hungarian geographers consider the term "Pannonian Plain" not only unhistorical but also topographically highly erroneous. Regarding the name as such, they are arguing in terms of ancient history, namely that the northern and eastern boundary line of the namesake Roman province of Pannonia was formed by the River Danube, thus the Great Hungarian Plain was not part of the original Pannonia province.

The Messinian is in the geologic timescale the last age or uppermost stage of the Miocene. It spans the time between 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma and 5.333 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Tortonian and is followed by the Zanclean, the first age of the Pliocene.

The Messinian overlaps the Turolian European Land Mammal Mega Zone (more precisely MN 12 and 13) and the Pontian Central European Paratethys Stage. It also overlaps the late Huayquerian and early Montehermosan South American Land Mammal Ages, and falls inside the more extensive Hemphillian North American Land Mammal Age.

The Miocene (/ˈmaɪ.əsiːn, -oʊ-/ MY-ə-seen, -⁠oh-) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.04 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell and comes from Ancient Greek μείων (meíōn), meaning "less", and καινός (kainós), meaning "new, recent", and thus, means "less recent", because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene followed the Oligocene and preceded the Pliocene.

As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by distinct global events but by regionally defined transitions from the warmer Oligocene to the cooler Pliocene Epoch.

The Zanclean is the lowest stage or earliest age on the geologic time scale of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 5.332 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago) and 3.6 ± 0.005 Ma. It is preceded by the Messinian Age of the Miocene Epoch, and followed by the Piacenzian Age.

The Zanclean can be correlated with regionally used stages, such as the Opoitian of New Zealand, and the Tabianian or Dacian of Central Europe. It also corresponds to the late Hemphillian to mid-Blancan North American Land Mammal Ages. In California, the Zanclean roughly corresponds to the middle part of the Delmontian stage.

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, FRS (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles Darwin and as the author of Principles of Geology (1830–33), which presented to a wide public audience the idea that the earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, operating at similar intensities. The philosopher William Whewell dubbed this gradualistic view "uniformitarianism" and contrasted it with catastrophism, which had been championed by Georges Cuvier and was better accepted in Europe. The combination of evidence and eloquence in Principles convinced a wide range of readers of the significance of "deep time" for understanding the earth and environment.

Lyell's scientific contributions included a pioneering explanation of climate change, in which shifting boundaries between oceans and continents could be used to explain long-term variations in temperature and rainfall. Lyell also gave influential explanations of earthquakes and developed the theory of gradual "backed up-building" of volcanoes. In stratigraphy his division of the Tertiary period into the Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene was highly influential. He incorrectly conjectured that icebergs were the impetus behind the transport of glacial erratics, and that silty loess deposits might have settled out of flood waters. His creation of a separate period for human history, entitled the 'Recent', is widely cited as providing the foundations for the modern discussion of the Anthropocene.

The Central American Seaway (also known as the Panamanic Seaway, Inter-American Seaway and Proto-Caribbean Seaway) was a prehistoric body of water that once connected the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, separating North America from South America. It formed during the Jurassic (200–154 Ma) during the initial breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana, forming a mediterranean sea between the Panthalassia and Tethys Ocean, and finally closed when the Isthmus of Panama was formed by volcanic activity in the late Pliocene (2.76–2.54 Ma). The modern-day remnants of the seaway are the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea and the Central Atlantic region around the Sargasso Sea.

The closure of the Central American Seaway had tremendous effects on oceanic circulation and the biogeography of the adjacent seas, isolating many species and triggering speciation and diversification of tropical and sub-tropical marine fauna. The inflow of nutrient-rich water of deep Pacific origin into the Caribbean was blocked and so local species had to adapt to an environment of lower productivity. It had an even larger impact on terrestrial life. The seaway had isolated South America for much of the Cenozoic, which allowed the evolution of a wholly unique diverse mammalian fauna there. When it closed, a faunal exchange with North America ensued and led to the extinction of many of the native South American forms.