"The other day, I was challenged concerning the paleodepths of the
lowermost
section at Alba, Italy where the eel was found and the site that I used
to
show that life could exist in a desciccated Mediterranean. The
suggestion
was made that the area had not been more than 500 feet deep (150 m). I
did
some more research and found this for the strata in an area just south of
Alba. . . ." He then quoted M. Gnaccolini et al.:
"Similar associations are considered indicative of the upper bathyal zone
with depth range between 200 and 600 m. The presence of differentiated
species of Uvigerina in the whole succession is particularly important
because it may exclude depths shallower than 200 m." adding:
"200-600 m is a range of 650-1950 feet. the center of that range is in
the
neighborhood of 1300 feet deep"
Sorry, but the evidence you cite demonstrates that the area was once
under at least 200 m of water. Granted, it might have been under up to
600 m, but the quotation as given assures no more than 200 m. One must be
careful not to read too much of what one wants into the data.
My CD Britannica notes that the evaporites at the bottom of the
Mediterranean "reach up to several kilometers in thickness." I calculate
that a cube of sea water 1 m on a side will evaporate to leave about 1.6
cm of salts. So a kilometer of deposit represents 60 km of evaporated sea
water. This is over twelve times the deepest area, or about 40 times the
average depth. "Several" requires us to multiply that by more than two.
That's quite an influx.
The same source describes the area as "a dry desert nearly 10,000 fett
below the present sea level." Could life have survived there, as in Death
Valley? Probably. But I note that the necessities of life are imported
into Death Valley, not produced there. Scotty managed because he took
over the one source of fresh water and somebody poured money in.
Otherwide he would have headed for greener pastures or a well-watered
farm. I submit that anyone smart enough to build an ark would have headed
for higher ground unless the Mediterranean was fenced.
Dave