Atlantic Island Theory

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Atlantic Island Theory

What are the effects a huge island like Atlantis could have on the geography of the Atlantic and on the climate of the northern hemisphere? Since there is no real scientific proof of the existence of Atlantis, one possible way to indicate that Plato’s story is true to some extent, is to find out the effects a huge island like Atlantis could have on the geography of the Atlantic and on the climate of the northern hemisphere. The following picture shows the present way the Gulf Stream runs:




If we look at the way the Gulf Stream is shaped, caused by northern and southern trade winds, it gets clear that it affects the climate of Northwest Europe a lot: Through the warm water and the humid air masses the climate is much warmer than it would be without the Gulf Stream. The isotherms develop from the way of the Gulf Stream: Because of its course it diverts the ten- and zero degree isotherm to the North, so that the ten degree isotherm is on the same height as Great Britain / Germany and the zero degree isotherm runs above Greenland to the North of Scandinavia. If the Gulf Stream did not exist, the isotherms would have their way nearly parallel to the latitudes which means that the zero degree isotherm would approximately take the way of the present ten degree isotherm. In that cage the climate of Northwest Europe would be much colder.

As research work showed, at the time of Quaternary the oceanographic circumstances at the place of the Gulf Stream’s origin were the same as today and also a northern and a southern trade wind existed. So effects of the Gulf Stream on the climate of Northwest Europe would have been the same, too, and that is the point!!! Warm tropical water rushed along the Brazilian and Middle - North - American coast, and we can be sure that the Gulf Stream also entered into the North - Atlantic ocean, like today. But it did not get into the direction of the European continent, otherwise the freezing of West Europe would not have happened! This might have been caused by a huge obstacle like an island, because after the “Würm Ice Age”, the climate in North - West - Europe radically changed (it became much warmer), which means that the Gulf Stream got to Europe for the first time. The Gulf Stream has a width of 600 - 800 kilometres, so the obstacle had to be, measured crossways to the current, ca. 800 - 1000 km long, otherwise it would not have been able to stop it. An island dimensioned in a way like this cannot disappear without leaving any traces of it. And if you have a look at the cross-section of the Atlantic seafloor it seems like a sunken land with high mountains. Sharp mountain tops loom above the surface of the sea - the Azores.

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If we imagined that the sea level would sink around 3000 metres, an enormous land-mass with high mountains and steep slopes would appear. It would be in the way of the Gulf Streams which flowed directly across the Atlantic Ridge. At the west coast of this island its waters became back-ups and in long stretched bow it would stream back to the West. So, Northwest Europe would be exposed to cold, rough climate and in a period of strong freezing tendency, it would led to a full ice again. Exactly this full freezing over occurred during the Quaternary - a proof of the fact that the following figure reconstructs the former real situation of the North - Atlantic!

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Why do make people contacts between Atlantis and this part of seafloor in the Atlantic ocean? Well, the question remains, how and when the disappearance of the island happened. The answer is situated in the fact that the sea level did not change, but the ocean bottom, together with the land-mass of the island put in it, descended. So, the only remaining things are today’s well-known Azores. At the end of the Quaternary, and also with the end of the “Würm Ice Age” the climate in Northwest Europe radically changed, caused by the arrival of the Gulf Stream. So we can assume that the island had sunken by that time, otherwise the Gulf Stream wouldn’t have had the chance to arrive there. Today we believe that this incident happened approximately 12000 years ago. That means that the island must have sunk about 10000 years B. C.

If we compare everything we know so far with the ideas presented by Plato, there are three points which are to be compared: Localisation, dimensions and the moment of the island’s disappearance. All three are results of the research corresponding with Plato’s descriptions about Atlantis, but we will deal more exactly with the comparison of the extent and moment of its fall.

Plato describes Atlantis in his dialogue “(...) as an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia (...)” (http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critias.sum.html), but we have to bear in mind that in Plato’s time Asia was the today’s Middle East and Libya was the part of Africa well-known in the antiquity. But in spite of this fact, Atlantis had to be a really large island. According to Plato there was a plain in the south of the island 6000000 square stages big, corresponding to 200000 square kilometres. If we assume this level constituted approximately half of the island, we calculated a total volume of 400000 square kilometres. This extent was also calculated by the submarine contours of the Azores space. The time of Atlantis’ fall must have been according to Plato’s description approximately 9500 B. C.- the sinking of the “Gulf Stream Island” before 12000 years. With the comparison of these two descriptions one receives a difference from only 500 years, so the moment of Atlantis’ fall corresponds nearly exactly with that of the “Gulf Stream Island”.

Since a lot of information of these two “Test Objects” corresponds, it is probable that the two islands were in reality the same. That would mean that today’s Azores were a remainder of Atlantis. The question of its former existence would no longer be asked. However, till today there is still no generally accepted proof that this theory is correct.

For additional evidence, click here.
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