# What climate would a dry Mediterranean have **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688 "2013-07-27T18:16:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/1 "2013-07-27T18:16:46Z")
If the [Zanclean flood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanclean_flood) had never happened, and the Mediterranean were dry, what would its climate be like? The Mediterranean basin’s average altitude is -4900 feet, and it’s lowest altitude lower than -17000 feet. Would those extreme depths cause the temperature to soar at that altitude? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/2 "2013-07-27T20:03:56Z")
Would that really be the state of the region if not for the flood? I assume you are asking a hypothetical about the current geography being suddenly devoid of water, but I am curious if that would really be the state of things if Gibraltar had never been breached. Rivers feeding the region may have been insufficient to compete with evaporation to fill the area, but they might have raised the altitude with silt deposits over millions of years. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/3 "2013-07-27T20:11:49Z")
Branching from the OP’s link, is [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis#Relationship_to_climate) discussion of climate prior to the flood. I would guess it would have continued that way. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/4 "2013-07-27T20:42:07Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Branching from the OP’s link, is [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis#Relationship_to_climate) discussion of climate prior to the flood. I would guess it would have continued that way. Thanks, I totally missed that in the Messinian Crisis article. 176F! Holy cow! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/5 "2013-07-27T20:46:18Z")
Yeah, but it’s a dry heat. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/6 "2013-07-27T20:57:18Z")
I’m not convinced it’s possible to answer the question. A dry Mediterranean would affect the climate of all the surrounding areas, and in fact the entire planet. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/7 "2013-07-30T11:44:11Z")
There’s a good Harry Turtledove novella called _[Down In the Bottomlands](http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200108/0671578359_toc.htm)_ set in an alternate-universe dry Med. He has it as a hot desert (which, given the prevalance of all the evaporites in the Med basin, seems about right) ---
**Author:** ![Werekoala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7993a0/32.png) [@Werekoala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Werekoala)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/8 "2013-07-30T16:01:33Z")
I imagine that basin would take in a huge amount of air, but would it have been enough to have any effect on the average air pressure planet-wide or is that still just a tiny drop in the atmospheric ocean? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/9 "2013-07-30T16:09:57Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There’s a good Harry Turtledove novella called _[Down In the Bottomlands](http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200108/0671578359_toc.htm)_ set in an alternate-universe dry Med. He has it as a hot desert (which, given the prevalance of all the evaporites in the Med basin, seems about right) As I recall, it’s virtually uninhabitable by humans, though still highly valuable, both for its mineral resources and its unique ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2013, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-climate-would-a-dry-mediterranean-have/664688/10 "2013-07-31T08:14:34Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > As I recall, it’s virtually uninhabitable by humans, though still highly valuable, both for its mineral resources and its unique ecosystem. Yes, it’s basically a desert nature reserve, Trench Park. It’s economically valuable because the incised rivers leading into it provide hydropower to the Europeans. It also serves as a buffer between two polities, the _neanderthal_ Europeans and the _sapiens_ Africans. Overall, I thought Turtledove did a good job of extrapolating a likely setting based on actual projections on what a dry Med might be like..