The plan was inspired by the then-new understanding of the Messinian salinity crisis,[11] a pan-Mediterranean geological event that took place 5 to 6 million years ago.[12] The contemporary geologists proposed that the large salt deposits surrounding the Mediterranean coast were the result of its partial isolation by a shrinking of the seaways connecting to the Atlantic. Today it is a majority opinion among geoscientists that the Mediterranean underwent a significant drawdown during that period, of at least a few hundred meters.[13]