Past sea level has varied by somewhat more than a hundred metres. This is primarily due to the growth and decay of ice sheets (mostly in the northern hemisphere) with water evaporated from the sea. The Mediterranean Basin's gradual growth as the Neotethys basin, begun in the Jurassic, did not suddenly affect ocean levels. While the Mediterranean was forming during the past 100 million years, the average ocean level was generally 200 metres above current levels. However, the largest known example of marine flooding was when the Atlantic breached the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis about 5.2
Sea level rise salinity of the sea ice and sea water are equal. This assumption is not valid in the case of melting sea ice, where the sea ice contains less salt than sea water. Fresh water has a larger volume compared to salt water, and as such there can be a small contribution of sea ice melt. In the case that all floating ice shelves and icebergs melt, the sea levels would only rise by about . Humans impact how much water is stored on land. Building dams prevents large masses of water from flowing into the sea and therefore increases the