Among the many ways humans have looked to master this satellite , few idea can be count bold and more batsh*t than plans to flood the world ’s largest desert , the Sahara , and make a Brobdingnagian new “ sea ” in Africa . For centuries , this idea has been floated time and time again . Now , with the mankind face a deepening climate crisis , this dangerous idea has experience yet another renaissance .
To see how this plan might open , we only ask to look at the Mediterranean Sea , which was created , at least as we know it , a little over 5 million year ago by the biggest megaflood the world has ever see .
Today , the Mediterranean is known for its kookie temperature andpicturesque coastlinesthat are consummate for beachgoers . However , just under 6 million years ago , this patch of the planet was for the most part just a dried - up basin caked in salt . If you happened to be around at this time , it would have been theoretically potential to walk from southerly Europe directly to North Africa across this corking salty plane .
Less than 6 million years ago, this is what the Mediterranean looked like.Image credit: Paubahi/Wikimedia Commons(CC BY-SA 3.0)
This unusual situation rise around 6 million years ago when the Mediterranean Sea was cut off from the Atlantic Ocean . It ’s not altogether decipherable how and why this happen , but most explanations ask mammoth architectonic forces and the lowering of ocean degree .
Prior to the crisis , sea level had dropped about 70 meter ( over 200 feet ) , pee it harder for the Atlantic Ocean to course into the Mediterranean . geminate with this , some argue that tectonic force were at play around the Strait of Gibraltar , effectively nurture the seafloor and make a dekameter wall between Southwestern Europe and northwesterly Africa .
As centuries passed , desiccation exceed rain and the Mediterranean dry out . scientist called this theMessinian salinity crisis .
Scientists believe the situation was resolve by the Zanclean flood , a theorise flood of water that reconnected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean around 5.33 million years ago . Thanks to this new inflow of urine , the Mediterranean was eventually deform from a salt - drive wasteland into a beautiful ecosystem , beaming with biodiversity .
As far back as the 19th century , challenging thinkers have woolgather whether it would be possible to create an case like this in the Sahara , creating an inland “ Sahara Sea ” that would sour the area from a barren desert into a profuse land . Its proponents argue that this could impart a wealth of economical and humanitarian welfare , not to remark military advantages ( for the lucky one ) .
One of the first to draw up the plan was Scotch engineer Donald McKenzie who advise deluge the El Djouf catchment basin in 1877 . He argued that a 644 - km ( 400 - mile ) long distribution channel from Morocco into the Sahara basin could create an inland sea of around 155,400 square kilometers ( 60,000 straightforward miles ) , or so the size of it of Ireland .
standardized proposal spring up in the keep an eye on 10 and the approximation of the “ Sahara Sea ” even serve as the setting of the 1905 novelInvasion of the Seawritten by the " Father of the Church of scientific discipline fable " Jules Verne .
The idea continued to spark imaginativeness throughout the 20th C . Egypt has continually flirted with the plan to build a canal from the Mediterranean Sea that leads to the Qattara Depression to create an artificial lake amid the sand sand dune . The theory is that it would transmute the landscape while father pile of hydroelectric power from the steady flow of piddle .
Now in the era ofclimate change , some are toying with the “ moonshot ” estimate of ocean flooding yet again . One such proposalhas evoke flood the Middle East ’s Dead Sea , which is found at the borders of Jordan , the West Bank , and Israel . This could be done by passively pipe water from the Mediterranean or the Red Sea to the Dead Sea Depression .
Its pleader argue this would transfer the Dead Sea depression into a thriving ecosystem , much like how the Zanclean flood tide transformed the Med . In crook , it would foster the growth of woodland , microalgae , and other plant lifespan that would assist to seize carbon and mitigate climate change .
gratuitous to say , any geoengineering project on this scale has the potential to go very wrong . Scientists , on the whole , arevery skepticalabout geoengineering ’s electric potential to direct mood alteration , let alone the many unforeseen risks it may entail .
Even Y Combinator , a US inauguration throttle that’sshown interestin “ desert implosion therapy ” , hasconcededit is “ risky , unproved , even unlikely to work ” .
Desert implosion therapy is evidently a tempting musical theme , as designate by the heaps of interest it has pull in over the retiring 150 old age , but it sure feels like it ’s well leave to the sci - fi novel for now .
