An international and multidisciplinary group of scientists have recently joined efforts to 3 organize the challenging endeavor of drilling through the thick Messinian evaporites found in 4 deep Mediterranean basins (IODP pre-Proposal P857B DREAM; Camerlenghi et al., 2014; Lofi 5 and Camerlenghi, 2014). The targeted deep basin evaporites reach up to 3 km in thickness (Hsü, 6 1973) and are thought to have resulted from restricted connectivity of the Mediterranean Basin to 7 the Atlantic Ocean that lead to the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC). It has been suggested that 8 deposition of the MSC salt giant has greatly affected the global oceans by sequestering 5% 9

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