Late Miocene Euphrates River drained into a partially desiccated eastern Mediterranean (opens in new tab)

Although the Euphrates River—stretching ~3,000 km across Western Asia—has shaped the region’s geology for millions of years, the timing of its origin and the evolution of its course remain enigmatic. So far, two contrasting hypotheses have been proposed to explain the fluvial system’s Late Neogene path: termination in Anatolia at a palaeo-lake or the Mediterranean, or a southeastward continuation to Arabia. Here we use seismic-reflection and topographic data to show that two previously identi...