Water as Microscope of Nature

In the Codex Leicester, Leonardo outlines the history of the entire Mediterranean basin through the ages. He speculates that in remote times it did not communicate with the Ocean and extended over much larger areas, from which only the peaks of the Apennines and Alps emerged. At a certain point, erosion caused the opening of a gap at Gibraltar, through which the waters of the Mediterranean flowed into the Atlantic. The resulting sharp fall in the level of the Mediterranean led to the emergence of entire regions.