The Great Islands Under The Sea

THE GREAT ISLANDS UNDER THE SEA                                                                              continued



At the time of the first large-scale controlled depth-finding operations in the deep
Atlantic, a recurrent wave of interest in Atlantis arose in the Western World.  A
number of people, apparently including some of the Naval Officers involved in the
operations, were curious as to the possibility of there being a sunken continent in
the center of the ocean, more or less where Plato said it once existed.

Although, certainly, the early scientifically-controlled soundings over what we now
call the Mid-Atlantic Ridge had nothing to do with the ancient legend, it still lingered
as a memory in the consciousness of some of the participants and of those who read
about the results.

Ignatius Connelly, who might be called the Plato of Modern Atlantology, interpreted
the results of the soundings taken of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the 1870s as a proof
that the site of Atlantis had been found.  His words from his book ATLANTIS  are
like a clarion call to further exploration:



"Suppose we were to find in mid-Atlantic, in front
of the Mediterranean, in the neighborhood of the
Azores, the remains of an immense island, sunk be-
neath the sea - one thousand miles in width, and two
or three thousand miles long - would it not go far to
confirm the statement of Plato that, "beyond the strait
where you place the Pillars of Hercules, there was an
island larger than Asia [Minor] and Libya combined"

.....And suppose we found that the Azores were the
mountain peaks of this drowned island, and were torn
and rent by tremendous volcanic convulsions; while
around them, descending into the sea, were found
great strata of lava; and the whole face of the sunken
land was covered for thousands of miles with volcanic
debris, would we not be obliged to confess that these
facts furnished strong corroborative proofs of the truth
of Plato's statement, that "in one day and one fatal
night there came mighty earthquakes and inundations
......and Atlantis disappeared beneath the sea; and then
that sea became inaccessible on account of the quantity
of mud which the engulfed island left in its place."