Bromine content of salts from DSDP Hole 13-134, Mediterranean Sea (Table 1)

The deposit includes dolomite, anhydrite, gypsum, halite, and more soluble salts and covers an area more than 10**6 km 2. The origin of the evaporites has been interpreted as the product of desiccation, when the Mediterranean was isolated from the Atlantic during the Late Miocene Messinian stage, 5-7 million years ago.

The desiccation led to a total destruction of pre-Messinian marine faunas and permitted the development of oligohaline and euryhaline faunas in the Mediterranean region. The circum-Mediterranean lands became arid and forests were replaced by savannas and steppes. Large-scale migrations, especially of grazing animals, may have been the consequence of such a drastic change in geography and in ecology.