Mediterranean Sea million years ago (mya) in less than two years by the Zanclean flood. Water poured in from the Atlantic Ocean through a newly breached gateway now called the Strait of Gibraltar at an estimated rate of about three orders of magnitude (one thousand times) larger than the current flow of the Amazon River. The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of and the deepest recorded point is in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The coastline extends for . A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the
American Mediterranean Sea American Mediterranean Sea The American Mediterranean Sea is the combined waterbody of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The American Mediterranean has a surface area of 4.319 million km and an average depth of . Its basins include those of the southern Caribbean: The Venezuelan, the two Colombians, the Magdalena River and the Gulf of Darién; and the Yucatan Basin. It also contains the Mexican and the Mississippi Basin, both of the Gulf of Mexico. The American Mediterranean is considered one of the oceanic marginal seas. In addition to numerous small islands, large and small groups of islands,