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the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

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« Reply #90 on: March 06, 2008, 07:29:34 am »







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A small piece of volcanic agglomerate was dredged from 400 fathoms on the north slope. About a ton of flat pteropod limestone cobbles was dredged from the summit area. One of the cobbles gave an apparent radiocarbon age of 12,000 years ±900 (J.L. Kulp). The state of lithification of the limestone suggests that it may have been lithified under subaerial [i.e. above water, on land surface] conditions and that the sea mount may have been an island within the past 12,000 years. (Heezen, Bruce C., et al, "Flat-Topped Atlantis, Cruiser, And Great Meteor Sea Mounts" in Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 65:1261, 1954 (Protogonos issue 9))

In later studies, evidence was found for the remnants of a "sunken block of continent" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. An articlein New Scientist 1975 summarizes the result. (Anonymous, New Scientist,66:540, 1975)

(from Unknown Earth: A Handbook of Geological Enigmas by William R. Corliss.)


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« Reply #91 on: March 06, 2008, 08:06:49 am »









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GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
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The Importance of Oceanography

The geological aspect of Atlantis is the most important facet of the whole issue of Atlantis. If the geological story of this planet does not support the existence of a large island in the midst of the North Atlantic, then, to make a long story short, Atlantis is down the tube. Therefore, establishing the feasibility of such a landmass geologically is of paramount importance. In the case of Atlantis, geology and oceanography are closely entwined.

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIONS

The center of the geological story of Atlantis is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Other related aspects are confined to the ocean bottom in the vicinity of the Ridge. Therefore, these areas will be the focal points of this study. Since I am not an oceanographer myself, I will rely on the special reports and scientific papers of oceanographers and geologists who have done work in these areas in the past.


Don't let anyone tell you that the discovery of Plate Tectonics (involving "continental drift") disproves Atlantis in any way. I've heard professionals in the field make statements like, "This doesn't leave any room for Atlantis!", or "the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is made of basaltic material, it can't be part of a continent!" We will let you decide after you have looked at the evidence.
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« Reply #92 on: March 06, 2008, 08:11:54 am »









THE ATLANTIC LANDMASS




Professional geologists have endeavored to make Plate Tectonics (which is the backbone of modern geology) the enemy of Atlantis (Speicher, 1972).

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Plate Tectonics is what created and what destroyed Atlantis. It is also what has made it such an unreliable dwelling place for plants or animals, and the landmass we have chosen to call Atlantis may have gone in and out of existence several times over a period of many millions of years.

It was not always the same size or the same shape, and it doubtless had different catagories of flora and fauna during these different periods of time.

It doesn't take long for a landmass to develop some sort of collection of flora and fauna in geological terms.

In a mere thousand years, all kinds of trees, grass, weeds and bushes could cover any landmass making its appearence in a temperate or tropical zone. Such growth couldn't care less whether the land was made of continental (sial) or basaltic (sima) material.

Or whether it was officially a "continent" or not. Greenland is an island. Plato called Atlantis "a large island". So if it was as large as Greenland (a pretty big place), it would still be an "island".
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« Reply #93 on: March 06, 2008, 08:13:25 am »









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                                                    PLATE TECTONICS





Did North America and Europe fit together so perfectly that there was no body of water in between? Evidence indicates that there was a "proto-Atlantic Ocean" even before the continents began to spread apart. This evidence was obtained during a series of core drillings by the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory's Deep-Sea Project. During this expedition it was found that sediments off the coasts of North Africa and North America differed in age some 45 million years. Had the continents been joined the sediments would have been the same age (Hayes & Pimm, 1971). The nature of the samples resulted in Dr. Hayes postulating a 400-mile-wide "proto-Atlantic Ocean" extending from Newfoundland down to at least the Bermuda area.


Moreover the phenomenon known as "continental drift," which is due to the action of Plate Tectonics, is an extremely slow process. The breakup which left the Americas and Euro-Africa drifting apart began near the beginning of the Mesozoic Era some 200 million years ago. There has been sufficient room for Atlantis in the North Atlantic Ocean for the last 60 million years--and there is definitive oceanographic data to support this (Ewing, 1948).


Some biologists and zoologists have postulated the existence of a large landmass in the North Atlantic during Miocene times, 12-26 million years ago. Atlantis may have "surfaced" several times during the long geological history of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We are more concerned about the last 3 million years, i.e., during the Pleistocene Epoch, which ended circa. 12,000 years ago.


But what of the objections concerning the light granitic continental material known as sial (silicon-aluminum)? As stated above, a landmass does not have to be made of sial in order to be above ocean levels long enough to acquire vegetation and animal populations. Granted, if consisting predominately of sima (silicon-magnesium) it will be heavier and therefore unstable, but forces powerful enough to lift ocean bottoms for short periods of time (geologically speaking) certainly exist along the geologically turbulent Mid-Atlantis Ridge. The Ridge is the most active area on the face of the earth, and we will examine the evidence that a central Atlantic landmass has indeed existed several times in the geologic past.


But, in spite of what various geologists have said, there is good oceanographic data showing that much of this area along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is composed of sial, in spite of the scientific objections (Leonard, 1979). Dr. W. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University headed up several oceanographic expeditions along the famous Mid-Atlantic Ridge. 
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« Reply #94 on: March 06, 2008, 08:14:50 am »









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                                         THE OCEANOGRAPHIC EXPEDITIONS





In 1948 Dr. Ewing, one of the bitter opponants of Atlantis, sailed up and down the Mid-Atlantic Ridge during the Woods Hole Oceanographic Expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Numerous samples of tremolite asbestos were brought up. Ewing made this significant comment: "Such rock is generally considered typical of continents and not of ocean basins." (Ewing, 1948) Important also was the discovery of "beachlike terraces" beneath two miles of ocean water. Ewing cautiously observed: "It is, of course, extremely radical speculation to identify these level stretches more than two miles below the sea surface as former beaches. Such a theory would require the obvious but almost incredible conclusion that the land has subsided two miles or else the sea has risen by that amount" (Ewing, 1948). However, subsequent expeditions only strengthened the "incredible".


According to Ewing, long flat stretches were detected 2 to 20 miles wide and hundreds of miles long. These beach-like areas were always covered with thick sediments, indicating a long period of deposition, although always separated by mountainous "higher ground" with no such sediments. (The Central Highland of the Ridge occasionally approaches four-fifths of a mile from the sea surface.) Ewing observed that deep ocean basins never have thick sediments--which are the result of surf action and river deposition--it is actually shorelines that display thick sediments. More evidence of just how recently such a landmass existed turned up during an expedition the following year.


The follow-up expedition in 1949 turned up numerous core samples from these terraces. These cores contained two different strata of beach sand: the older estimated to be 225,000-325,000 years of age, and the younger 20,000-100,000 years old (Ewing, 1949). Another significant fact is that the deposits were found to be well-sorted by serf action into the usual pattern of shoreline beaches familiar to geologists (Miller & Scholten, 1966). His conclusion was that: "Sometime in the distant past this sand found deep beneath the ocean must have been located on a beach, at or near the surface of the sea" (Ewing, 1949).
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« Reply #95 on: March 06, 2008, 08:16:00 am »









During this second Woods Hole Mid-Atlantic Ridge Expedition Dr. Ewing once again dredged up continental type rocks. Sample after sample containing large masses of sial were brought up all along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It became obvious that granite and sedimentary rocks "which originally must have been part of a continent" were abundant (Ewing, 1949). Dr. Bruce Heezen of the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory observed that this type of rock indicates "possible sunken land masses".


Geologists have short memories when it comes to Atlantis. A geologist reviewed the Woods Hole expeditions of 1948-1949 barely ten years later and wrote a report on the findings (Cifelli, 1970). I read his report, word for word and cover to cover: not a word was written concerning the numerous findings of continental material (sial) along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Dr. Ewing was puzzled, even dismayed, by these particular discoveries; yet he was honest enough to report them. Why were these astounding facts not included in Richard Cifelli's review? Can professional geologists be this one-sided? (You know the answer to that.)


Still another oceanographic expedition, Swedish Deep-Sea Expedition of 1947-1948, yielded core samples containing sand from the Romache Deep of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Dr. Otto Mellis did not publish these findings until ten years later (Mellis, 1958). Other geologists have guardedly admitted that the Azore Islands (Central Atlantic) are composed chiefly of continental material, some even conceding that there might be enough continental material (sial) in the mid-Atlantic to make up a landmass the size of Spain (de Camp, 1970). This is not much smaller than the size I have been proposing for the island of Atlantis.
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« Reply #96 on: March 06, 2008, 08:17:25 am »








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                                           PLANTS AND ANIMALS ON ATLANTIS




In 1957, Dr. Rene Malaise of the Riks Museum in Stockholm announced that a colleague, Dr. R. W. Kolbe, had found proof of the geologically recent subsidance of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Dr. Kolbe of the Swedish Museum of Natural History had been commissioned to investigate diatoms found in deep-sea cores obtained during the above mentioned Swedish Deep-Sea Expedition. Although the expedition included a globe-encircling study, only those cores taken from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge yeilded the following: Multitudinous shells of fresh-water diatoms (small lake animals) and fossilized remains of terrestrial plants (Kolbe, 1957). Let me repeat that. Land plants and fresh-water animals were found fossilized on the Atlantic Ocean bottom along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.


Dr. Malaise theorized that parts of the Ridge must have existed as large islands up to the end of the last Ice Age or later: i.e., as recently as 10,000-12,000 years ago. He also theorized that these landmasses must have had fresh-water lakes in order to account for the existence of fresh-water animals (Malaise, 1956). Commenting on Malaise' theory, Kolbe writes: ". . . it provides a natural explanation of the layer consisting exclusively of fresh-water diatoms, which is otherwise difficult to comprehend" (Kolbe, 1957).


The six levels of terraces discovered by the Woods Hole expeditions suggest that the Atlantic island was constantly changing shape - as well as being reduced in size - before it finally disappeared at the end of the Ice Age. Such geological changes would have been catastrophic to any life living on such a landmass: the unhappy result of the constant violence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. If the Atlantic landmass happened to be inhabited by humans, these violent disturbances could well have been the cause of the four Cro-Magnon "invasions" outlined on the Anthropological page of this web site. These well documented invasions impacted the western shores of North Africa and Europe (including Great Britain and other Atlantic islands) and occurred during a time frame of 35,000-12,000 years ago (the latter date corresponding closely to the date given by Plato for the demise of Atlantis).


* TOP of Page

Bibliography

Cifelli, Richard, "Age relationships of Mid-Atlantic Ridge sediments," Special Paper No. 124, Geological Society of America, 1970.
de Camp, L. Sprague, "Lost Continents," Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1970.
Ewing, Maurice, "Exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge," The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. xciv, No. 3, September 1948.
Ewing, Maurice, "New Discoveries on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge," The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. xcvi, No. 5, November 1949.
Kolbe, R. W., "Fresh-Water Diatoms from Atlantic Deep-Sea Sediments," Science, Vol. 126, No. 3282, 22 November, 1957.
Leonard, R. Cedric, A Geological Study of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Special Paper No. 1, Cowan Publ., Bethany, 1979.
Leonard, R. Cedric, "Quest for Atlantis," Manor Books Inc., New York, 1979.
Malaise, Rene, Sjunket l and i Atlanten, Ymer, Stockholm, 1956. (See also his Atlantis en Geologisk Verklighet, Bibliofilupplaga, Stockholm, 1951.)
Mellis, Otto, Zur Sedimentation in Der Romache-Tiefe (Ein Beitrag zur Erklarung der Enstellung des Tiefseesandes in Atlantischen Ozean), Geologischen Rundschau, Goteborg, 1958.
Miller, J. P. & Scholten, R., "Ocean, Lakes, and Shoreline Features," Labratory Studies in Geology, No. 225, 1966.
Speicher, John, "Plate Tectonics--A Startling New View of Our Turbulent Earth," Popular Science, Vol. 200, No. 6, June 1972.


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« Reply #97 on: March 06, 2008, 08:34:47 am »









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            PROOF OF THE FORMER EXISTANCE OF A LARGE ISLAND ON THE MID ATLANTIC RIDGE





River Systems Extract - Azores as a Large Island

In 1971 we carried out an inspection of parts of the South Coast of San Miguel, the largest of the Azorean Islands. At one point, we found the remnants of a large, boulder filled, river-bed truncated by the shoreline. The rounded boulders were smoothly water-worn and massive (up to two feet across). The river bed, if we remember correctly, was some two hundred and fifty feet from bank to bank; but there was now insufficient width of island to sustain such a river. The boulders were so worn that they had, obviously, travelled a considerable distance, and a strong current of water with a head of thousands of feet would have been required to transport them. There was no room on the narrow island for such a current to be fostered - the rivers source must have lain to the north, on the flanks of a high mountain range. The present mountains on San Miguel are only a little over 3,000 feet high; and we estimate that it would have required a fall of at least 10,000 feet to have reduced boulders of that size, and hardness, to the degree of roundness which they profess.

This discovery so intrigued us that we started an investigation of the mapped sea-bed around all of the islands, with remarkable results. We started with the 1:1 million scale Admiralty Chart - Arquipelago dos Acores - the numerous soundings of which gave a very good general view of the configuration of the sea bed over the whole group of Azorean islands, covering, from east to west - Ilheus das Formigas, Santa Maria, Sao Miguel, Terciera, Soa Jrge, Graciosa, Pico (with its 7,613 feet high, conical, volcanic peak). These were supplemented by larger scale charts where they were available.

We started by contouring the sea bed at intervals of 100 fathoms (600 feet), and it immediately became clear that the river systems that now modestly drain the southern flanks of Sao Miguel were merely head-water tributaries whose channels continued far out to sea, joining into one great, winding, submarine valley some 40 miles further to the south. Other islands contributed similar results and, outstanding, were the triple group of Fial, Sao Jorge and Terciera whose combined results spawned two long river-like valleys which joined into one large valley to give a system that extended for 180 miles.
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« Reply #98 on: March 06, 2008, 08:36:23 am »







The whole of the Azorean island group was separated and surrounded by a net of submarine valleys that had all the hall-marks of having once been river valley's on the surface. The Azores could - and probably had, within comparatively recent times - sunk by many thousands of feet.

The next step was to decide whether it was possible to detect any particular contours which might point to an ancient shore line pre dating the sinking of the area. In the south, there was a clear break in gradients around the 1,900 fathom (11,400 feet) contour where a very extensive plain dipped sharply into deeper water. In the north, much the same had happened but at a considerably more shallow depth.

It began to look as if a large land mass, 450 miles across from east to west, and 300 miles from north to south, had tilted from north to south and had sunk beneath the waves, leaving only its mountain peaks showing above the waters - peaks which now form the ten islands of the Azores.

After further calculation, we reached the conclusion that the tilting, either before or during foundering, had been of the order of 0.4 degrees, as a result of which the south coast had sunk more than 11,000 feet and the north coast only some 6,000 feet.

We then reconstructed the land profiles to the approximate positions in
which they should have been before the catastrophe. We re-contoured the whole area, raising the north coast by 6,000 feet; the south coast by 11,000 feet; and the intervening area proportionally to the adopted gradient. The result was the outline map shown below.

It was now possible to visualise a great island about the size and shape of Spain, with high mountain ranges rising over 12,000 feet above sea level and impressive rivers running in curving valley systems. In the southeast, a feature which we have called 'The Great Plain' covered an area in excess of 3,500 square miles, and was watered by a river comparable in size to the River Thames in England. It has, and we shall sea, points in common with the great plain described by Plato in his Critias, as being a feature of the Island of Atlantis.

The study on which we have embarked has two parts. The first is to establish that a large island could have existed in mid-Atlantic in Pre-historic times; the second is to determine whether there could have been a connection between the inhabitants of such an island and our heroes - The Shining Ones.

In our judgement, the first of these parts has been successfully determined; and it is proper, therefore, to proceed with an examination of Plato's detailed description of Atlantis and its inhabitants.

Extract from Chapter 18 The Shining Ones by Christian and Barbara Joy O'Brien


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« Reply #99 on: March 06, 2008, 08:44:11 am »









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                                            The mystery of the eighth continent





By P. Lal

PLATO spoke of it some 2500 years ago. Oceanographers have discovered what look like its vestiges, on the floor of the Atlantic. Writers have written about it. Libraries have catalogued it under the category of legends. The scientific community, by and large, has denied that it ever existed.

Yet, there are reasons to believe that Atlantis, the eighth continent, once existed, in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly between Spain, Africa and the Americas, and sank some 11,500 years ago, into the ocean, where it now rests at the bottom.

According to Plato, Atlantis had a powerful empire, with influence on and trade with, the countries on both sides of the Atlantic, the eastern American and the western African and European coasts. It was larger than Libya and Asia put together (here, Libya means North Africa and Asia means Asia minor and parts of the Middle East), from where one could pass through the whole of the "opposite continent". Plato’s reference to the "Opposite Continent" came to be true 2000 years after him, when America was discovered by Columbus.

There is no reason why his account of the Atlantis should also not be true.
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« Reply #100 on: March 06, 2008, 08:47:19 am »








Recent discoveries of unidentified ruins under the Atlantic Ocean where great stone roads or platforms were found fitted into place have given credence to the belief that Atlantis once existed. Members of a deep-sea expedition of the then USSR on board the "Academician Petrovsky", a research ship, photographed seafloors in the Atlantic in 1974, near Horseshoe Archipelago, 300 miles west of Gibraltar. The pictures taken on the summit of Ampere Seamount, rising from 10,000 feet within 200 feet of the suface of the sea, showed remarkable features like stone walls, the masonry block of the walls being upto 1.5 metres high, and the width of the walls being 75 cm the stone staircase cut into the cliff of which the five steps were clearly visible, and levelled off stone platform connected to another staircase. Subsequent expeditions have not only confirmed the finds but discovered more of the type over a wider area.

In 1981, an expedition along the underwater shelf off the Canary Islands disclosed large stone slabs set on the sea bottom at a depth of about 50 feet over an area of 900 sq feet. The stones appeared to be carefully set, and wide stone steps led down from the central pavement. An undersea wall, off the Moroccan coast, extending several miles in length, has also been discovered and photographed.

Besides the theory of the drowning of the Atlantis’ due to the rise in the sea level at the end of the last Ice age, the other theories given out for its sudden disappearance include violent earthquakes, seaquakes and volcanic explosions resulting in its sinking into the sea. The mid-Atlantic ridge, dividing the Atlantic into two almost equal parts, is the highest mountain range, under water, and is situated in the most active seismic zone. In the past few hundred years, there have been several known instances of the appearance and disappearance of islands in the Atlantic, due to the seismic activity of its oceanic floor. Thus, in 1622, the city of Villa Franca, capital of the Azorian island of Sao Maguel fell into the sea due to a sudden seismic convulsion. In 1811, a large volcanic island appeared in the Azores, was given the name Sambrina, and then disappeared into the sea after a few years.

It is also speculated that the advanced civilisation of the Atlantis had tapped unknown sources of energy specially those inherent in the tectonic plate movements which are responsible for earthquakes. Unwise utilisation of this source of energy might have led to its being destroyed in a major earthquake.

Whatever the truth about the Atlantis, the same is bound to be known with the application of modern day tools of research and discovery. Till then, it will remain in the realm of speculation, buried at the bottom of the Atlantic.


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« Reply #101 on: March 31, 2008, 10:49:09 pm »




 Re: Atlantis CANNOT be in America
« Reply #112 on: Today at 10:19:34 pm » Quote 

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There are dozens of sites w/Atlantis...use search engine.

Once all the maps have been studied, especially using ocean topography, it is clear that the Pacific cannot have been the location of Atlantis, but you will also notice that in the Atlantic are found 10 plains, possible for 10 kingdoms for 10 kings just as Plato's account states.




*************************************************************************************






They are:



On the East side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge:





Biscay Plain

Cape Verde Plain

Angola Plain

Cape Plain

Weddell Plain





On the West side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge:



Sohm Plain

Hatteras Plain

Demeraro Plain

Pernambuco Plain

Argentine Plain (the largest of all)





I must admit, when I counted the plains within the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, I was astounded to find that there were exactly 10 of them! I was not expecting this at all.

I found them when Zia placed the theory of Indonesia. I must thank Zia for this.




*************************************************************************************


Also, The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the ONLY (and full) North-South "crack" in the world tying into the following:

Southwest & Southeast Indian Ridge
Central Indian Ridge
Pacific Antarctic Ridge
East Pacific Rise
Juan de Fuca Ridge

Even though the area of the Ring of Fire surrounds the Pacific, it SURROUNDS the Pacific. It does not fit in with Atlantis.

Also, you might look up a map that has the Panthalssa Ocean & Tethys Sea. This is a little harder to find.


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« Reply #102 on: January 28, 2009, 04:17:01 pm »

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    The Mid-Atlantic Ridge – Atlantis revisited
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The Mid-Atlantic Ridge – Atlantis revisited

Even today several contrasting theories exist concerning the geographical position of Atlantis, the continent – or perhaps we should say, the island – that disappeared approximately 14,000 years ago. Some researchers try to locate Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea, believing that the Greek island of Santorini is in reality what is left of it, while others search for the mythical place off the coasts of Cornwall, England. Some even think that Atlantis may be found near Antarctis.

Plato’s texts are known to most people who are interested in the origins of the Atlantis myth, so we will not cite them here. However, one piece of information that Plato seems to be very certain about, is Atlantis’ location "beyond the pillars of Hercules" – the ancient name for Gibraltar. Thus, in the Atlantic Ocean – and in the light of this information, it is logical to conclude that the name of the lost island is not casual.

If we presume that the Atlantic Ocean is the place where we may find traces of Atlantis even today, an important point must be stressed: if Atlantis was actually located in the Atlantic Ocean, it could not have been a ‘continent’, if we consider the morphology of the earth’s crust. The well-documented theory of the continental drift seems to sustain this conclusion. In fact, if we compare the costal lines of the African and European continents to those of the American continent, we find that there is not sufficient land "left" to justify the presence of an actual "continent", not even in past geological ages.

Also the question of the sudden disappearance of Atlantis is a mystery. In geological terms, a few years or months represent a very short period of time, which is why the theory that Atlantis may have sunk ‘in a few hours’ is rather weak. We may presume that this theory is a result of the usual evolution of legends: the disappearance of Atlantis in the course of a more probable period of several months or weeks, with a geological background of several years of developing sub-crustal pressure – until we arrive at a fabulous and sudden disastrous sinking that seems mysterious and inexplicable. This is the typical way of the oral tradition of distorting the actual facts. When mankind began to record the history of their ancestors, the stories e.g. from Atlantis, had been passed from generation to generation of survivors and their off-spring with varying degrees of accuracy, until what would finally be written down, was bound to be a tale very different from the actual events. The historical notions that we possess regarding Atlantis are those gained by Solon from the priests of Ancient Egypt – and another 200 years passed, before Plato wrote the texts where Atlantis is mentioned. Obviously, the story of the lost country has greatly changed during the centuries and millennia.

Some researchers have sought the solution of a sudden disappearance of an entire continent in the theory of the inversion of the Earth’s magnetic poles – a real phenomenon which however does not represent a threat to the survival of continents, and only in rare cases to that of islands.

Below, a geologist’s condensed explanation of the concepts of the inversion of the magnetic field of the planet and the continental drift. Writes dr. Mauro Carta who collaborates with the Italian web-site www.vialattea.net/esperti/geologia.html:

"The phenomenon of the inversion of the Earth’s magnetic field is not connected with any particular glaciation, e.g. the Riss. We are having to do with a phenomenon that is strictly connected with the theory of the movements caused by plate tectonics, and with the expansion of the ocean floor. At the centre of the Atlantic Ocean there is a gigantic ridge which expands for thousands of kilometres in N-S direction, from Iceland in the north to the Bouvet Island in the south. In correspondance with this ridge (which has been named ‘mid-atlantic’ because it divides the ocean in two parts), we find submarine volcanic activity, with an incessant production of basaltic crust. In the ‘60s the theories of H. Hess and D.H. Matthews introduced Plate Tectonics, which repeated the conclusions that the German Alfred Wegener had drawn in the 1920s. A very substantial piece of evidence for the expansion of the oceanic crust was the discovery of the magnetic inversion: practically, it has been discovered that the Earth’s two magnetic poles are periodically inverted. The reason for this inversion is yet to be discovered, but the inversion is registered at a microscopical level in basaltic rocks, whose magnetic minerals solidify along the lines of the magnetic field present during their period of consolidation. The ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean presents a ‘stripe’ structure, meaning that moving away from the ridge, the magnetism of the basaltic rocks display positive polarity in one place, and a negative polarity in another (the iron-magnetic minerals of an oblongue shape display variations of 180° between each other). As the Atlantic basalts are of an age that goes from 180 million years to very recent structures, this means that at least since the Jurassic until today the two magnetic poles (which are not identical to the geographic poles that correspond to those points where the Earth’s rotation axis intersects its surface – the magnetic poles are somewhat dislocated; they have their northern point in the Canadian arctic archipelago – and the southern one in the d’Urville Sea in Antarctis.) These magnetic poles have inverted their position a great many times."

(cit. Mauro Carta, www.vialattea.net/esperti/geologia.html )


The Mid-Atlantic Ridge – MAR – as it can be seen in NASA’s official map
(URL: http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/ridge.html)

It is possible to observe that exactly along the ridge, in a certain point some higher reliefs are present below sea level, as indicated by the lighter blue colour.
From the geologist Mauro Carta’s explanations it results that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is very active – the dislocations of the reliefs are frequent and vivacious.
However – if there does not seem to be sufficient room for an entire continent, what may the original topology of Atlantis have been like?

The topografic relief maps that we have at our disposal today speak clearly. In the below image the colour indicates the age of the rocks. The brown and red zones are the most recent ones; they go back to a minimum of 0 years to a maximum of 9.6 million years ago. All the other areas are even older (older than 9.6 million years). Once again, the area that captures our interest is outlined by the white rectangle:


(Detail from the world topografic map at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov.)

As regards our purpose: the effective possibility of finding Atlantis, the last expedition in the mentioned area of the Atlantic Ocean saw an American team searching the MAR in the period November 14 – December 14, 2000. Responsible for the team were the professors Donna Blackman (Scripps Institute of Oceanography), Jeff Karson (University of Washington) and Deborah Kelley (Duke University), and other experts from a total of eight different American universities participated in the project. The "R/V Atlantis" was the research ship provided by the US Academic Navy – and the aim of the expedition was to study the mineralogical composition as well as the topographical evolution of the so-called "Atlantis Massif".


The instrument that would allow the experts to study the ridge at close quarters, was "Alvin", a small bathyscaphe capable of diving to great depths and equipped with a mechanical arm for the removal of rock samples. Furthermore, sophisticated sonar and video instruments on the "R/V Atlantis" would contribute to illuminating the results of the research from other angles.

The choice of the area where the research would be concentrated was not casual. Probably previous cartographic studies of images elaborated by satellites have helped the experts select an area where they might obtain the results they were aiming at.


This research area, however, does not correspond entirely with the area indicated in the above NASA map (fig. 1), though perhaps except for the extreme north-eastern area of the chosen spot. The geographical location of the area is c. 30 degrees north. The MAR expedition’s web-site, http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/mar/ , explains the purpose of the same:

"The unusual thing about the area under study is a large mountain, called the Atlantis Massif, just west of the Mid-Atlantic spreading center at 30°N. The peak of the mountain is 1,700 m (5,000') higher than the usual spreading ridge crest. The width of the mountain is 4-6 times greater than that of most abyssal hills. It is clear that this mountain is a new addition to Earth's crust since it is part of very young and newly created seafloor. The mission is to find out why and how it formed. What forces are responsible for the great height to which rock has been uplifted at this site? What caused a change in the usual style of oceanic crustal formation? When might this area return to its normal state? These are the many questions the scientists seek to answer."

If the American research team had decided to concentrate their studies in an area located more north-easternly of the Atlantis Massif, they might have discovered other things – perhaps also of an archaeological nature – but the mentioned scientific expedition of course clearly states that their main interests concerned the geological features of the MAR. From the maps of the "National Geophysic Data Center" (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov ) it is possible to observe very clearly that a little further towards north-east, a much more interesting relief is located, from an archaeological point of view – it is in fact an area where the attempted recovery of objects might offer evidence of a submerged civilization. Let us observe the maps which are available on the Internet at the NGDC-site (the images are small details of much larger maps, which have not been manipulated in any way. The maps have been developed by the NGDC for didactic and scientific purposes.)


In the right (eastern) part of this image we find the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar, and part of the north-west African coast. The Spanish and Portuguese islands off the African coast may be observed – and further to the left we see a section of the mid-atlantic ridge. The area outlined by the while oval corresponds to an area which probably represents the reliefs of a huge island which now lies below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. This area also includes the Azores.

The reliefs which are so clearly observed in the above image are even clearer in a splendid image of the entire planet, where the factor of the Earth’s curvature logically improves the visual prospective:( http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/relief_slides2.html )


It has been possible to study the underwater mountain ranges only since 1973 – in fact, ever since the beginning of the space age the various satellites have been providing spectacular images which indicate without any doubt hitherto unknown details concerning the Earth’s crust and the submarine reliefs. Here, we clearly see a submerged shape similar to a peninsula which points in south-west direction, towards the northern coasts of South America. The same reliefs that we find schematically sketched in the first map of this article, the NASA map, are more clearly visible, here.

It seems natural to ask, if so many archaeologists are in search of a scoop - why have none of them ever gone directly in this place, to study the mid-atlantic ridge in a place where aerial images show such an evident island/peninsula shape?

In an attempt to explain this ‘lack of interest’ (or, granted, maybe we should say, ‘lack of funds’?), admittedly we only have very few references to point to, in order to feel certain that an expedition with the aim of finding Atlantis would yield the results hoped for. Besides Plato’s writings which have already been thoroughly discussed by many persons and organisations on the Internet, we have only one alternative source that offers any conclusive material on Atlantis. However, to compensate for its ‘solitude’, this source directly states the geographical coordinates of the lost island of Atlantis. And where two different sources agree, as it is known, the probabilities of obtaining a result increase. Below, we cite the ethical-philosophical-scientific work of "Toward the Light":

"The second empire that perished was a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, the so-called Atlantis. In the remote past this island was connected with the southern part of North America, but through volcanic activity it became separated from the mainland.
The shape of the island can reasonably well be compared to a diagonally elongated, inverted Latin "S" – the upper curve at the right, and the lower at the right. The island’s northernmost point extended to about latitude 40° North, longitude 34° West. The island extended south to about latitude 25 ½ ° North, and west to longitude 47° West, latitude 27 ½ ° North, and eastward to about longitude 28° West. …"

- and the detailed information to establish Atlantis’ exact location continue. On the base of this information we may sketch the following map (the shape of the island is only approximate):


In the book "Toward the Light" we furthermore find the information that if we trace an imaginary line from the English town of Plymouth to the centre of the island of Trinidad close to the South American coast, such a line would cut through the length of the submerged island and touch its easternmost and southernmost points. The largest part of the island would lie west of this line.

Those who have hitherto attempted a reconstruction of Atlantis have probably found difficulty when dealing with the factor of the curvature of our planet. It is in fact difficult to trace a line like the one described without being able to work with the Earth-sphere in three dimensions. If we let ourselves be helped by the most recent satellite map from the NGDC, this new prospective reveals some interesting details:


What would the oceanographers/archaeologists find if they actually decided to research the mentioned area, with bathyscaphs equipped with cameras, sophisticated sonars, etc.? After 14,000 years it would certainly prove difficult to find the ceramic objects described by our source:

"The production of clay utensils was widespread. Basins, bowls and vases were often engraved with ornamental animals and leaves, whose outlines were filled in with brilliant colours." ("Toward the Light", pages 196-97)

It would probably be easier to find other kinds of objects:

"Gold, copper and to some extent silver were all known and used for jewelry and finer utensils, as well as for inlays in the carved wooden images of the gods. Many such images were hewn in stone or formed out of various metallic alloys. The art of building was especially highly developed." (idem, page 197)

The site of what was perhaps the most impressing construction of Atlantis has been pointed out to us: Atze’s Temple – today identified by the name of one of the last high priests of the island. Even today, we have the possibility of observing this temple, because we possess drawings, based on precise instructions from the authors of "Toward the Light". In the 1930s the Danish architect Knud Brønnum made a model in scale of the temple, which can be seen in the offices of the publishing house "Toward the Light Publishers", in Adelgade, Copenhagen.

Below, the drawing of the temple’s façade:


(the drawing made by Knud Brønnum, copied from Carsten Skaarup’s book,
"The Victory of the Light over Darkness")

For more accurate information on Atlantis, see "Atlantis - geographical and cultural notions".

Is it scientifically possible, on the basis of the information we possess of Atlantis, to say that we have at last discovered the lost island’s geographical location?

The hitherto most reliable texts, Plato’s writings, have been carefully studied by many archaeologists and amateur researchers. The other text that we have mentioned in the above, "Toward the Light", is a much more recent text; it was first published in 1920.

Plato left us with fairytale-like and approximate indications – while "Toward the Light" describes Atlantis’ culture and level of civilization very accurately – besides offering its precise geographical position. The above study, based on the maps at our disposal today – which most certainly were not available to those persons who wrote down and published "Toward the Light" – demonstrates beyond doubt that the mentioned geographical coordinates are to be taken very seriously.

**********************

Other links for those who want to learn more about the geological nature of ocean floor of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge – the experts’ comments may be found at the following URLs:

· From "Science for Everyone", a ‘field study’ of the MAR containing interesting data on the eruptive processes and the tectonic movements typical of the area: http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/eosdksmith.html

· Exceptional images at: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minrelief.html
The entire site http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov displays various types of geographical maps. A web site worth visiting.




http://www.altrementi.com/english/literary/mid-atl_ridge.htm 
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LoneStar77
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« Reply #103 on: February 03, 2009, 07:25:25 am »

THE ATLANTIC LANDMASS

Professional geologists have endeavored to make Plate Tectonics (which is the backbone of modern geology) the enemy of Atlantis (Speicher, 1972).

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Plate Tectonics is what created and what destroyed Atlantis. It is also what has made it such an unreliable dwelling place for plants or animals, and the landmass we have chosen to call Atlantis may have gone in and out of existence several times over a period of many millions of years.

It was not always the same size or the same shape, and it doubtless had different catagories of flora and fauna during these different periods of time.

It doesn't take long for a landmass to develop some sort of collection of flora and fauna in geological terms.

In a mere thousand years, all kinds of trees, grass, weeds and bushes could cover any landmass making its appearence in a temperate or tropical zone. Such growth couldn't care less whether the land was made of continental (sial) or basaltic (sima) material.

Or whether it was officially a "continent" or not. Greenland is an island. Plato called Atlantis "a large island". So if it was as large as Greenland (a pretty big place), it would still be an "island".

Bianca, you've made some very good points here. Plate tectonics indeed!

However, I think the mid-Atlantic ridge is the wrong place, if Atlantis existed at all. The ridge is a "spreading center" from which new plate material is being created. Unless such a spreading center is already elevated, as with the Great Rift Valley, I would think it would remain submerged at the bottom of the ocean. No force that I can think of would elevate the ridge. In fact, I would think that a spreading center (divergent boundary) would lead to a subsidence, and this may just happen to the Great Rift Valley in a few million years.

However, between the ridge and Gibraltar is a plate boundary. And where do most of Earth's mountains exist -- near plate boundaries, created by the geological actions known as subduction (one plate sliding underneath the other) and crustal folding (buckling of the crust).

Fifty to sixty million years ago something happened to cause subduction along the Africa-Eurasia plate boundary to become pinched or damaged. Subduction was suddenly impossible locally. Africa plate movement, however, continued in the same direction, generally trending toward the north or northeast.

Subduction normally comes with a certain amount of friction. This friction plus the resistance of the overlaying plate material (in this case the Eurasian plate), results in folding. Some kind of mountain building would have been expected. But now, with an impediment to subduction, folding would have done triple-time. Every inch of forward plate movement would have added to the folding, because now there was no plate slippage locally -- no return of Africa plate material to the mantle, below.

About 36 Ma, according to Searle, the rather curious bend in the plate boundary was formed. From that point forward, the boundary trended not East-West, but toward the Northwest. Why the sudden bend? Imagine a car wreck in slow motion. Depending on the momentum, the entire car could become a crushed hulk of metal, but there is a point beyond which the initial momentum cannot push. The mountains of our new island could not become any taller, but Africa was still pushing.

Okay, now imagine you have two pieces of paper, one sliding underneath the other, and someone pushes a thumb tack through both of them at one point. Beyond the inevitable buckling of paper, the result of forward motion by Africa combined with an immovable point, is rotation -- plate rotation.

If one looks at the plate boundary today, from the mid-Atlantic ridge to the Arabian plate (which used to be part of the African, btw), it's a mess! By and large, the action across the Med is subduction of the African underneath the Eurasian. Along the Gloria Fracture Zone, from Gibraltar to the Azores, there is some transverse action, but the plate boundary is said by some to be indistinct -- jumbled. At the Azores, from the bend to the mid-Atlantic ridge, is another ridge -- a spreading center, creating new plate material, albeit much more slowly than the main ridge of the Atlantic.

Draw a diagram of these three regions -- spreading center in the West, convergence (subduction) in the East, and transverse or no action in between, the resulting picture is one of plate rotation, starting 36 Ma. Take two pieces of paper and try it yourself. One is the Africa plate and the other the Eurasian.

By about 35 Ma, stress fractures are seen in North Africa, resulting in volcanic fields. But the big daddy of them all occurs about 5-10 million years later -- the African plate loses Arabia, and the Great Rift Valley is born. Today, that valley is incomplete. The Somali sub-plate is still attached to the African. Perhaps one day it will become a separate plate as did the Arabian.

Plate rotation of the African caused a sheering force in the East, effectively ripping off part of the plate. After all, the plate material had already been committed to a certain direction of subduction and interaction with the Indian plate farther east. Adding to this the new rotational vector would cause a great deal of stress, yet because of its speed, would take millions of years to manifest.

Another effect of plate rotation, though, is that the initial push was gone. The initial force that created proto-Atlantis had been deflected.

Another effect of this continuing motion, though, was more damage along the Africa-Eurasia plate boundary. Some of the plate east of Atlantis was still attempting to subduct. An area of damage next to an area attempting to subduct would cause more folding, or damage, at the area of attempted subduction. This damage would infect its way across the plate boundary, eventually reaching Gibraltar.

Six million years ago, the Messinian salinity crisis occurred. The Med dried up, apparently on and off for the next 700 thousand years. This was because Gibraltar had become blocked. Some scientists say this was merely because Africa finally ran into Eurasia in the area of Gibraltar.

I had always wondered how Plato's Atlantis could have elephants. Did Atlanteans have zoos? If Atlantis was connected to the mainland between 5.9 and 5.33 Ma, then elephants could have walked across the peninsula from Africa and Eurasia.

Plate rotation around the poorly supported accidental island led to its eventual demise, different areas subsiding in fits and starts, shaken loose at the foundation.

Do we have any proof that Atlantis sank? Not directly. But we have proof that something very, very BIG happened 9600 BCE (http://www.ancientsuns.com/ancient-earth/atlantis.php).

Briefly, a worldwide change in climate, a moderately large volcanic trace in the Greenland ice cores, and a two-meter drop in sea level worldwide. Two meters is exactly what would happen if a Texas-size plot of land subsided 3000 meters in any ocean. Look at the geography of the ocean floor around the Azores. This may just be the closest thing yet to a smoking gun.

Carl Martin
www.MissionAtlantis.com
http://blog.AncientSuns.com
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LoneStar77
(Carl Martin)
"Now we have proof that something BIG happened right when Plato's Atlantis subdided. We have the 'smoking gun.'"
www.MissionAtlantis.com
Bianca
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« Reply #104 on: February 03, 2009, 08:55:36 am »





Welcome to AO, LoneStar77!!!


QUOTE:

"Bianca, you've made some very good points here. Plate tectonics indeed!"


I can't take the credit for that.

If you look closely, the credit goes to:



Carolyn Silver
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Posts: 544



    The Mid-Atlantic Ridge – Atlantis revisited
« on: August 11, 2008, 03:04:51 am » Quote 

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The Mid-Atlantic Ridge – Atlantis revisited

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