# Gibraltar Through Deep Time > A free, interactive 3D map of the Rock of Gibraltar and the Strait of Gibraltar through about 200 million years, from the Early Jurassic sea where the Rock's limestone formed to today. A guided tour of 13 stops changes the ground, the sea level, the plants and the light for each era. Every stop has a short English card that says what happened, how certain it is (high, medium or low confidence), what in the 3D scene is measured, reconstructed or only illustrative, and which peer-reviewed sources it rests on. Runs in the browser (WebGL); free, no login. Made by Gabor Szabo. English only. The terrain starts from today's measured surface: a 2 m elevation model of the Rock and the isthmus, about 90 m land data and about 115 m sea-floor data for the Strait (Copernicus DEM GLO-90, EMODnet Bathymetry). Past sea levels come from the literature and are drawn on today's ground; for the oldest stops the ground itself is reshaped, and those shapes are labelled as illustrations of published ideas, not maps of the past. ## The 13 stops (open one directly with ?stop=) - [A warm, shallow sea](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=jurassic): about 199–193 million years ago (Early Jurassic, Sinemurian). The Gibraltar Limestone forms on a warm, shallow carbonate platform at the western edge of the Tethys: tidal flats and lagoons, 460–600 m of beds, much of it later turned to dolomite. High confidence. - [The platform drowns](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=drowning): about 191–184 million years ago. Faulting breaks up the platforms of the Tethys margin and they sink; at Gibraltar the limestone is followed by the Catalan Bay Shale, dated by rare Middle Lias (Pliensbachian) ammonites. Medium confidence. - [Caught in the Gibraltar Arc](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=arc): about 30–12 million years ago. Africa and Iberia converge, the Alboran Domain moves west and the Betic–Rif arc forms; the Rock is a klippe, a remnant of a thrust sheet pushed into place mainly in the Early Miocene, with the beds of its main ridge upside down. Medium confidence. - [A ridge above the sea](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=ridge): Late Miocene. Uplift closes the seaways through southern Spain and Morocco; by about 7–6 million years ago Gibraltar was probably the last gateway. When the Rock first emerged has not been dated. Low confidence (illustrative). - [The Mediterranean runs low](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=messinian): the Messinian Salinity Crisis, 5.97–5.33 million years ago. Gypsum and then thick salt form; the Alboran Sea probably fell by hundreds of metres, perhaps up to 1.5 km. How far the water fell is debated. Medium confidence. - [The Atlantic pours back in](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=flood): the Zanclean flood, 5.33 million years ago. A channel about 200 km long crosses the Strait; in the model of Garcia-Castellanos et al. (2009) the flow peaked near 100 million cubic metres a second and most of the water came in months to two years. Alternatives (a pulsed or slower refill) remain. Medium confidence. - [An island in a warmer sea](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=pliocene): Pliocene, about 3 million years ago. Global sea level probably about 16 m higher than now (estimates 6–25 m); the Rock was probably lower. Low confidence (illustrative). - [Ice ages swing the sea](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=iceages): the last million years. Sea level swings of about 120–140 m in cycles of about 100,000 years; marine terraces on the Rock at 1–25, 30–60, 80–130 and 180–210 m, and sea caves at today's sea level, 55 m and 180 m. High confidence. - [The Rock, probably an island](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=interglacial): the Last Interglacial, about 130,000–115,000 years ago. A wave-cut notch at Governor's Beach marks a sea about 5 m above today's; windblown sand begins to pile against the east cliffs. Medium confidence. - [Neanderthal Gibraltar](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=neanderthals): about 45,000 years ago. The sea roughly 65–75 m lower, a plain of dunes, pine woods and scrub east of the Rock, Neanderthals at Gorham's and Vanguard caves. Medium confidence. - [The lowest sea](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=lgm): the Last Glacial Maximum, about 26,500–19,000 years ago. The sea about 115–135 m lower, a narrower Strait, Spartel Bank an island. Medium confidence. - [The sea comes back](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=holocene): about 19,000–6,000 years ago. The sea rises by more than 120 m and the plain drowns; the sandy isthmus to Spain builds up later, in the mid to late Holocene. High confidence. - [The Rock today](https://gibraltargeology.gaborszabopoker.com/?stop=today): 426 m of mostly Early Jurassic limestone, still rising very slowly (about 0.05 mm a year over the last 200,000 years); the isthmus, the reclaimed land and the nature reserve. High confidence. ## Key sources - [Owen & Rose 1997, Early Jurassic brachiopods from Gibraltar, Palaeontology 40(2), 497–513](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/174357) - [Qing, Bosence & Rose 2001, Dolomitization by penesaline sea water ..., Gibraltar, Sedimentology 48, 153–163](https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3091.2001.00361.x) - [Rodríguez-Vidal et al. 2004, Neotectonics and shoreline history of the Rock of Gibraltar, Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 2017–2029](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.02.008) - [van Hinsbergen, Vissers & Spakman 2014, Origin and consequences of western Mediterranean subduction, rollback, and slab segmentation, Tectonics 33, 393–419](https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/303796) - [Krijgsman et al. 1999, Chronology, causes and progression of the Messinian salinity crisis, Nature 400, 652–655](https://doi.org/10.1038/23231) - [Heida et al. 2024, Seaway restriction, sea level drop and erosion in the Alboran Basin ..., Marine Geology 474, 107300](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2024.107300) - [Garcia-Castellanos et al. 2009, Catastrophic flood of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis, Nature 462, 778–781](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08555) - [Garcia-Castellanos et al. 2020, The Zanclean megaflood of the Mediterranean – searching for independent evidence, Earth-Science Reviews 201, 103061](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.103061) - [Lambeck et al. 2014, Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, PNAS 111, 15296–15303](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1411762111) - [Rodríguez-Vidal et al. 2013, Undrowning a lost world: the Marine Isotope Stage 3 landscape of Gibraltar, Geomorphology 203, 105–114](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.02.015) The full reference list (about 75 works, with DOIs where confirmed) is in the site's "About this map" panel. ## Sister sites - [Gibraltar 45,000 Years Ago](https://gibraltar45k.gaborszabopoker.com/): the Neanderthal landscape of Gibraltar in 3D, with the sea about 75 m lower. - [The Making of the Rock](https://gibraltarshow.gaborszabopoker.com/): a geological light show of how the Rock formed. - [Inside the Rock](https://gibraltarmap.gaborszabopoker.com/): Gibraltar today in 3D, tunnels and all.