<P> According to this model , water from the Atlantic Ocean refilled the dried up basin through the modern - day Strait of Gibraltar . The Mediterranean Basin flooded mostly during a period estimated to have been between several months and two years . Sea level rise in the basin may have reached rates at times greater than ten metres per day ( thirty feet per day ) . Based on the erosion features preserved until modern times under the Pliocene sediment , Garcia - Castellanos et al. estimate that water rushed down a drop of more than 1 kilometre ( 0.62 mi ) with a discharge of up to 2 × 10 m / s ( 7.1 × 10 cu ft / s ) , about 1,000 times that of the present day Amazon River . Studies of the underground structures at the Gibraltar Strait show that the flooding channel descended in a rather gradual way toward the bottom of the basin rather than forming a steep waterfall . </P>
how long did it take for the mediterranean sea to fill
estimated to have been between several months and two years