Can a Continent Sink?

[rockessence]

Adam,
Re your comment above of an object from space, etc.

Aparently the Gulf Stream began when "an object" struck the Caribbean area with enough force to scrape the mantle thin, thereby heating the ocean water enough to maintain the Stream's circuit for these millions of years.   This event may have been the catalyst to force such massive amounts of moisture into the air as to herald the beginning of precipitous ice at the poles.

[Mario Dantas]

Hi People,

Nice research Adam, a lot of the stuff you mentioned is in fact related with Atlantis Sink, as you stated:

"Two years ago, there was a large undersea expedition in the Atlantic.  Their findings?  From Europe, to North America, the ocean floor is covered with a large sheet of lava.  Obviously something dramatic happened in the Atlantic Ocean at one point.  Whether it fit Plato's description of Atlantis?  Who can say."

I think those lava sheets were completely molten and permitted a free Continental buoyancy allowing in so doing a large Island to float like any vessel would... but also the re approaching of the South American Continent, towards Africa.

There is in fact a strange pattern in this Geoid:

http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/grace/results/grav/g005_eigen-gl04c.html

The Canary Islands have a wide circular range pattern, very close to Guelb er Richat, Mauritania, which has somehow a similar configuration too. Greenland has in itself the magnetic "shadow" of Iceland.

The Energy that took to only dislocate such a large landmass, might have caused real "Trumpets of the Lord" as Velikovsky thought Moses and the Israelites heard, on Mount Sinai. Echoing signs of a large Earth-Quake were imprinted upon the Crust in these strange frequency patterns.

M

[Mario Dantas]

And, of course it couldn't sink, because as Ice floats on water, likewise if the Crust (Tectonic Plates) is released from Continental "strains" would as well float on Magmatic media, simply because it is less dense. It is already floating, by the way, and only slightly micro restructuring its Plates boundaries. Today all our Crust is completely hardened but not long ago we had large portions of it in the molten state where you could see everywhere on the Planet, something like this:

                

[HereForNow]

Another thing I would like to contribute to this thread. If a continent were to sink in one day and night, you can ony imagine the world wide effects that would be generated.

There would certainly be evidence of this everywhere. 
In which none to this point has surfaced so far.


Here is a great interactive globe for studying places.....

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/mapcenter/map.aspx

[Qoais]

What "form" would this evidence take?

If it's true, that they had nuclear power and blew themselves to kingdom come, the place would have been vaporized -  atomized - as in being reduced to atoms.  Where does one find an atom with the inscription on it that says - I was once a part of Atlantis?

I've been thinking about land masses sinking.  I think if a land mass becomes de-anchored, un-anchored, whatever, from the crust, it will eventually sink.  Mainly because it would eventually be eroded by water, and little bits of it would be constantly falling to the ocean floor, until gradually it became so waterlogged, it would sink and just become another bit of the ocean floor.  Also, if it's base is rock, which is what seems to be under all land masses, the rock would be too heavy to float, unless of course, the weight is spread over a very large area, like a raft or has a bulge in the middle, like a cement sail boat.

[Mario Dantas]

HFN,

There would certainly be evidence of this everywhere. 
In which none to this point has surfaced so far.

The Sahara Desert, all the Oceans Floor, the Himalayan post Orogeny, maybe even the moisturized Atmosphere is a sign of the veracity of the event. The water can make disappear any sign of it. The Ice and water at that moment might have acted more or less like in the Leidenfrost effect:

The effect can be seen as drops of water are sprinkled into a pan at various times while it is heating up. Initially, as the temperature of the pan is below 100 °C, the water just flattens out and slowly evaporates. As the temperature of the pan goes above 100 °C, the water drops hiss on touching the pan and evaporate relatively quickly. Later, as the temperature goes past the Leidenfrost point, the Leidenfrost effect comes into play. On contact the droplets of water do not evaporate away so quickly. This time, they bunch up into small balls of water and skitter around, lasting much longer than when the temperature of the pan was much lower. This effect lasts until a much higher temperature causes any further drops of water to evaporate too quickly to cause this effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_Effect





 Qoais,

the rock would be too heavy to float

The Crust is less dense than the "liquid" mantle underneath, therefore it should always float, like an Iceberg floating on the Ocean's water.

[HereForNow]

Interesting idea. I'll research it more.

[LoneStar77]

Adam, you've given us an impressive wealth of data. And all your sources seem solid references to this discussion. I've learned a few things, here. I especially liked the data on mega-tsunamis. Thanks!

On the subject of "continents," though, I think there has been much misinformation published in the past. Plato never states that Atlantis was a continent, as Adam pointed out. However, Plato's description of size is a bit vague and likely misunderstood. First of all, "Libya" was their word for "Africa," but only that portion of Africa known to those ancient Greeks -- namely the northern coast and a small distance inland. Likely, this did not include Egypt. This did not include most of the Sahara and none of sub-Saharan Africa. "Asia" to them was "Asia Minor," or most of what is modern Turkey. Add these two together and we get a landmass somewhere between 1 and 2 times the size of Texas (USA).

In 2002, while working on a novel project, I made several dozen discoveries in the scientific literature that may support the story of Atlantis. The three most startling are detailed at,

http://www.ancientsuns.com/ancient-earth/atlantis.php

All three of these events coincide with Plato's date for the destruction of Atlantis. Briefly, they are,

• An abrupt and worldwide change in climate at the end of the Younger Dryas.
• A moderately large trace of volcanic debris in the Greenland ice cores.
• A 2-meter drop in sea level worldwide.

The most telling, but sorely needing corroboration, is the 2-meter drop in sea level at the end of the Younger Dryas (9620 BCE). This drop is consistent with a Texas-sized plot of land dropping 3000 meters somewhere in the oceans of the world. None of these prove Atlantis, but they do prove that something very, very big happened the year Plato's Atlantis supposedly sank.

LoneStar77
(Carl Martin)
www.MissionAtlantis.Com
www.AncientSuns.Com
www.CarlMartin.Net

[Adam Hawthorne]

Thank you for the compliment, Carl.  Allow me to also wish you a Happy Birthday.

I try to look at Plato both literally and figuratively.  He could well have meant "greater" as opposed to "larger" as some have suggested, but if he is actually referring to a cataclysmic event in the Younger Dryas, we have to ask ourselves, how did he know about it?

This was before either the Greeks or the Egyptians existed as a people, before their languages were invented and before writing.

So, not only do we have to find an event that occurred back then, we haver to find a way to move writing and the first dates for Egyptian civilization as well.

[LoneStar77]

Thank you for the compliment, Carl.  Allow me to also wish you a Happy Birthday.

I try to look at Plato both literally and figuratively.  He could well have meant "greater" as opposed to "larger" as some have suggested, but if he is actually referring to a cataclysmic event in the Younger Dryas, we have to ask ourselves, how did he know about it?

This was before either the Greeks or the Egyptians existed as a people, before their languages were invented and before writing.

So, not only do we have to find an event that occurred back then, we haver to find a way to move writing and the first dates for Egyptian civilization as well.

Adam, you're welcome, of course. And thanks for the birthday greeting.

I have to correct myself from time to time from speaking in absolutes. What we currently know about history and prehistory is not everything there is to know. Sometimes scientists seem to forget this. Just because we don't have proof of a thesis does not automatically disprove a thesis, yet some scientists and many skeptics tend to do this without thinking critically about what they're doing.

Could proto-Greeks have existed as a civilized people during the YD (Younger Dryas) as Plato seems to suggest? The recently dated site at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey shows the remains of a moderately advanced people from about the same time that Atlantis supposedly sank -- approximately 10,000 BCE. The putative civilization of the proto-Greeks was supposedly washed away by a great flood. The sinking of Atlantis would likely have created a mega-tsunami (great flood). Could the sinking of Atlantis have removed all evidence of the proto-Greek civilization?

New discoveries are still being made in Egypt. Will we some day find evidence that Egyptian civilization did indeed go back past 30,000 BCE? The most recent civilization of Egypt apparently started 8,600 BCE (according to Timaeus), but much of that "memory" has been lost (or never existed if Plato's tale was a complete fiction).

Perhaps we need to qualify what we know as "what is currently known." None of the boundaries of our knowledge are absolute. The mid-1990's discovery of Amazon warriors in the burial kurgans of Southern Russia showed that another myth had a basis in fact. But not all evidence we might require is necessarily so well-preserved. Nature has a habit of destroying evidence. For that matter, humans have a habit of destroying evidence, if only to reuse resources. The facing blocks of the Great Pyramids of Giza were reused, after the massive earthquake of 1301 CE, to build mosques and fortresses.

Skeptics are likely certain no high technology existed back then? That may perhaps be true, but how tempted would be the citizens of early civilization to melt down artifacts that no longer worked or which were not understood? The point is that we simply do not know. The point is to have an open mind, but demand proof. And, of course, that's why we're here and the skeptics are missing out on all the fun.

Carl Martin
http://www.MissionAtlantis.com

[BlueHue]

I just peeked in if 'Atlantis' was found yet !

[Horus]

New Hypothesis Provides A Basis For The Reality Of The Legendary Continents Of Atlantis And Lemuria

The Demise of The Current Sea-Floor Spreading And Plate-Tectonics Theory

by William Hutton (aka Wyman Harrison, Ph.D. a tenured professor of geology)

To geologists it is no longer a hypothesis. It is now a theory. Every Earth scientist believes it is true. Right? And what is “it”? What I’m talking about is the theory of sea-floor-spreading and plate tectonics.

As a result of a comprehensive review published late last year, sea floor spreading and its plate tectonics corollary are shown not to explain correctly the origin of our planet’s ocean basins and continents. And what if the current “theory” is incorrect? If it proves to be wrong, a huge barrier is removed to the acceptance of the Cayce readings’ story on the lost continents of Atlantis and Lemuria.

No longer will it be delusional to consider vertical crustal movements to explain the origin of Earth’s ocean basins. “Elevator tectonics” will be in, and “shuffle-board” (plate) tectonics will be out, almost entirely. Although sea-floor spreading will still have a small place in geoscientists’ understanding of certain aspects of the origin and maintenance of continents and ocean basins, the really big picture, of elevation of ocean floors and - to a lesser degree - continents will rest upon a model that is driven by mantle surges.

Geologists know, for example, that a global surge of Earth’s mantle began in Mesozoic time. At its peak in the Cretaceous period, ocean floors in the Atlantic and Pacific were elevated above sea level. The resulting oceanic continents were full of volcanic terraces. The Mesozoic mantle-surge event was then followed by gradual cooling and collapse of the oceanic volcanic edifices.

To understand this radical departure in our understanding of mantle convective behavior, and its effects on Earth’s crustal structures, we need to review briefly the current model of sea-floor spreading and plate tectonics.

Fig 1. The conventional model of sea-floor spreading.

Current Sea-Floor Spreading Hypothesis

As shown in Figure 1, geologists currently believe that thermal plumes of hot magma are semi-continuously moving upward beneath ridges found in all of the world’s oceans. This semi-fluid basalt rock is exuded here and there along a ridge crest. The process forces sea-floor crustal plates on either side away from the ocean ridge and toward the continents. The continents may either be carried along by the adjacent sea floor, or the spreading sea floor may under-thrust a relatively immovable continent. See Figure 1 for examples of both hypothetical situations.

A given pulse of magma, over a relatively short distance along an ocean ridge, becomes magnetized when the semi-molten material cools below a specific temperature. Iron minerals in the basalt magma are then frozen in the rock and they point in the direction of the prevailing magnetic field. Geophysical survey methods can then used to detect whether the sea-floor rocks were magnetized in a normal geomagnetic field (like today’s) or in a reversed field. Because Earth’s magnetic field is moving and/or reversing through time, magnetic orientation directions of basalt exudations allow the sea-floor rock slabs be correlated with one another. This process results in a sort of “tape-recording” of the formation and movement of rock masses of the spreading sea floor - or so the hypothesis goes.

The crystallized rock of each new exudation then splits in two along an axis coinciding with the central valley of the ocean ridge. In Figure 2, two brown-colored slabs of newly crystallized, ocean-floor basalt are separated by a black line representing the central valley of a mid-ocean ridge.

Fig. 2. Magnetic stripes and the current sea floor spreading model. Sea-floor stripes are formed by ocean-floor magma that cooled and crystallized in a specific magnetic-field orientation. These rock masses may be offset later along transform faults or large-scale fractures that run perpendicular to the ocean ridge.
(Fig. adopted from a page on the U.S. Geological Survey’s website.)

The presence of magnetic stripes on the ocean floor has been thought to be prima facie evidence for sea-floor spreading, and the basis for the plate tectonics (PT) model of crustal motion. Note in the diagram that segments of magnetic stripes of the same age are confined on either end by transform faults that run perpendicular to the ocean ridge. It was assumed early-on in the development of the PT theory that striped segments of the same age were offset from one another due to different amounts of subsequent effusions of magma at the ridge crest. Larger effusions would push the plates farther apart than would smaller ones.

Here then, is an abbreviated description of the sea-floor-spreading and plate tectonics model for the dynamic behavior of the crust and underlying mantle. Most geologists have assumed this model correct for the last 25 years or so. Its acceptance by geoscientists has, quite naturally, caused great difficulty for those who want to accept the Cayce readings’ story of Atlantis and Lemuria. How could there ever have been continents in the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans where there are now ocean floors? For doesn’t all the evidence point to stability of the submerged ocean floors and to the basically horizontal movement of crustal plates the world over?

Problems With The Conventional Model, According to Prof. MacKenzie Keith
(Now Deceased)

Now comes a convincing treatise on what may really be happening in the realm of global crust and upper-mantle dynamics. I will be basing the rest of this article on MacKenzie Keith’s comprehensive examination of sea floor spreading and plate tectonics, published last fall.1 His paper has about 300 references and is the product of Keith’s life of research and teaching in the field, laboratory, and classroom. Upon his death last year he was Emeritus Professor of Geochemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Keith begins modestly by saying that although the essential features of the PT hypothesis are widely accepted, some aspects of the model are open to question. Quite simply, they conflict with known properties of Earth’s materials and the global crust/mantle dynamic system. Keith’s first objection is to the hypothesis that the plates are internally rigid. If a stress is applied to one side, it is transmitted to the opposite side with no deformation of the plate interior. But this is inconsistent with the results of experiments on rock strength and with the factors that govern the strength of large masses of rock over geologic time. Actually, large rock masses are weak, and they deform under the influence of heat.

Keith next states that there is a need to re-examine the hypothesis of upwelling of magma beneath the axis of an ocean ridge. Computer models of heat flow beneath ocean ridges are based upon evidence of a wide plume of ascending molten basalt to produce the magma effusions along the ridge. But how, asks Keith, can broad plumes generate the narrow zone of axial ridge volcanism, the “knife-edge” separation of adjacent flow regimes on either side of a transform fault (see Fig. 2), and the unbelievable “overlapping spreading centers” advocated by some geologists?

Further questions are related to the concept of ocean floor spreading and the tape-recorder model for generating the oceanic magnetic stripes. Different rock chemical compositions are often found on opposite flanks of the ocean ridges. The rocks should be of the same composition if they come from the same magma effusion. And what of the failure to find the required narrow zone of crustal accretion, with the property of dividing neatly so that matching halves move to either side?

Keith now moves ahead with certainty to answer these questions. He asserts that no spreading is required to account for the observed sea-floor features. Instead, the oceanic magnetic stripes can be explained by narrowing of a formerly very wide mid-ocean volcanic zone and by consequent crestward migration of something he calls the “blocking temperature,” discussed below. He hypothesizes that a Mesozoic surge of mantle flow and volcanic-zone expansion that peaked in Cretaceous time (between 66 and 144 million years ago) produced a different “volcanic face” on Earth. Elevated ocean floors then began to collapse over millions of years, leading to the features we find today.

Finally, Keith postulates an alternative model of upper mantle flow to the current one. His conceptual model involves mantle upwelling beneath continents, flow of mantle from beneath continents to beneath oceans (for Atlantic Ocean type margins), and convergent sub-ocean mantle flow toward the axes of mid-ocean ridges. He asserts that the mid-ocean ridges are principal boundaries of convection cells in the mantle. He then summarizes a wide variety of information in the rest of his review paper to conclude that “the weight of evidence clearly supports the alternative model [his model] and is contrary to the [sea-floor] spreading model of plate tectonics.”

Alternative Model of Mantle/Crust Dynamics
How the Keith Model Works

We’ll begin by considering what happens relative to the mid-Atlantic ridge (MAR) of the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of the now submerged Reykjanes Ridge south of Iceland. Instead of hot, plastic upper mantle material having flowed away from the mid-ocean ridge, as shown in Figure 1, it has flowed toward it and elevated the entire ocean floor, as shown in Figure 3.

Fig. 3. Simplified sequence of a series of cross-sections representing the cooling and sinking of Reykjanes Ridge, part of the MAR running southwest of Iceland (Fig. 4). This figure is modified from Keith, 2001, Fig. 11. The sections show Keith’s alternative model for generating oceanic magnetic stripes by ridge cooling following a Cretaceous-age peak in volcanic activity. The three early stages of cooling (and migration of blocking temperature isotherm B) represent conditions at magnetic anomaly ages 36, 24, and 16 million years ago (Ma). The blocking temperature isotherm is the temperature at which magnetic minerals acquire either normal or reverse remnant magnetism and thus record the Earth’s geomagnetic field orientation.

I have taken the liberty on Figure 3 of labeling the emerged part of the Reykjanes Ridge “Atlantis.” There is truly no better name to use for this formerly elevated, now- submerged oceanic continent. For actual physical evidence that parts of the mid-Atlantic ridge were above water during recent time, see below.

To continue now to elucidate Keith’s explanation of the origin of the magnetic stripes on the ocean floor, we quote from his p. 268, as follows.

“An essential feature of the proposed ocean ridge system is that all of the abnormal features that resulted from the Mesozoic surge of mantle flow:… uplift of the ridge, accelerated volcanism, broadening of the active volcanic zone, were subject to gradual Mesozoic to Recent relaxation and retreat, toward a steady-state system, a predictable effect of the slowing of convective overturn and volcanism, and the gradual diminishing, via return-flow gyres, of the accumulated large volume of sub-ridge subduction mixtures. The age-denominated sequence of magnetic anomalies, conventionally attributed to sea-floor spreading, is proposed to result, instead, from gradual narrowing of the active volcanic zone.”

Magnetic Banding According to Keith’s Cooling Model. Figure 4 may help to explain the above quote, as it applies specifically to magnetic banding. The basic idea is that a narrowing of the zone of mid-ocean ridge basalt volcanism (Fig. 4, reddish portions of bars) will be accompanied by crestward migration of the blocking temperature isotherm (Fig. 3). This is the temperature at which the magnetic minerals acquire remnant magnetism and thus record reversals of Earth’s magnetic field.

Fig. 4. Idealized snapshots of one side of a mid-ocean ridge, to show the development of oceanic magnetic stripes, from the mid-Cretaceous period of Mesozoic time to the Present, as a result of gradual narrowing of the active mid-ocean volcanic zone. A is the ridge axis. This diagram, modified from Keith, Fig. 10, shows migration of the blocking temperature isotherm B. The reddish color to the right of B indicates the portion of the ridge for which the principal magnetic source remains above the blocking temperature.
[The geomagnetic polarity (normal or reverse) and the geologic time scale are from D. Kent and F. Gradstein,1986, “Jurassic to Recent chronology,” in The Western North Atlantic Region. Geol. Soc. America, Geology of North America, v. M, pp. 45-50, Plate 1.]

Keith proposes that fracture zones and transform faults (see Fig. 2) are ocean-floor surface expressions of the boundaries of “convective rolls” in the underlying mantle. Such rolls are judged to be,

“the principal form of secondary convection within the upper boundary layer of sub-ridge mantle, a low-viscosity region estimated at 75-125 km thick….”

(p. 240).

Translating Keith’s words for the non-geologist reader, imagine that the primary, heat-driven flow of the uppermost mantle is outward from beneath a continent like Africa, and toward the MAR. As the mantle moves there is subsequent heat loss in the oceanic region. In the downstream region of lateral flow and heat loss there is development of an upper mantle boundary layer that eventually becomes unstable and yields a regular pattern of upper mantle “rolls” aligned in the direction of principal flow. Boundaries that develop along each edge of a roll result in ocean floor fractures and transform faults. (A transform fault is merely a near-vertical surface over which one side slips past the other, but is unique in that the displacement suddenly stops or changes form).


To end his description of the formation of magnetic stripes on the sea-floor, Keith cites relevant laboratory, numerical modeling, and field measurements. He concludes by saying that the evidence is consistent with his proposed upper-mantle convergent flow and contrary to the plate tectonics model of mid-ocean upwelling and divergent flow.

To quote Keith on the implications of Figures 3 and 4,

“the proposed ridge-cooling model of magnetic stripe formation does not involve spreading or continental splitting, and there are no implications regarding continental drift, except that the continents are presumed to be floating in the mantle, each focusing one or more upwelling plumes, and free to move in response to changes in the global [mantle] convection pattern. The principal continental drift will be related to mantle surge episodes, and there will be a strong tendency for continents to re-establish their separate positions as part of a return to a steady-state flow regime.”

Keith’s Hypothetical Model of Proposed Mid-Ocean Ridge Dynamics and Structure 

Keith proposes a structure for a mid-ocean ridge to satisfy geophysical observations and his intuition about how, dynamically, the ocean-floor crust and underlying mantle behave. He calls this structure a “flexload syncline.” A syncline is simply a fold in Earth’s rocks, the core of which contains younger material and which is generally concave upward. The adjective flexload is used to emphasize the effects of gravity-produced flexure on the crustal stress regime. In his proposed ocean-ridge model, the structure of the crestal zone is attributed mainly to gravitational deformation that results from two types of loading: crestward-increasing volcanic loading and downward increasing densification. Keith cites evidence that major flexload sinking,

“is not restricted to the near-axial zone but is broadly effective beneath the ridge flanks and formerly extended over the full width of Mesozoic to Early Tertiary ocean ridges.”

What will a cross-section diagram of a mid-ocean ridge structure look like for Keith’s crustal-collapse-under-cooling model? Figure 5 gives us the picture.

Fig. 5. M. Keith’s model of proposed mid-ocean-ridge dynamics and structure, including sub-ridge convergence and downflow, as adapted from Fig. 4 of his paper. The thickness of the crust is greatly exaggerated to show the structure.
This is a “flex load” syncline of former wide extent that reflects a crestward increase in volcanic loading and subsidence.
Red represents the region between the mantle and the sub-axial wedge of subducted crust, and is a zone of melting.
Blue lines represent crustal layering, dipping toward the axial valley. Solid lines are non-specific isotherms (lines of equal temperature). Green represents the low-velocity zone (for seismic wave propagation) that characterizes crust and mantle mixing. Brown indicates basalt-depleted residuum. “M” denotes the “Moho,” a boundary that separates the Earth’s crust from the underlying mantle.

Direct Evidence of An Emergent Atlantis

Incidental, almost, to Keith’s efforts to buttress one of his points about a former emergent continent in the Atlantic ocean is the material that he summarizes on former shallow water or emergent sites sampled by the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). The sampling sites are currently underwater in the region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Locations for three of these sites (Keith, 2001, Table 1) are shown by large red dots on Figure 6, in a relief map of the Azores. The red dots are rather large because, while the sampling coordinates that are listed give degrees north latitude, they do not give degrees west longitude. It is understood, however, that the samples were taken in the vicinity of the MAR axial valley, clearly visible on Figure 6.
 

Here’s what was found:

• at point A, at a depth of 12,802 ft: highly vesicular basalt, weathered and oxidized basalt, and a major gap in the basal sedimentary section that indicates subaerial erosion
• at site B, at a depth of 12,440 ft, basaltic pebbles and weathered and oxidized basalt were found. 
• at site C, in 12,313 ft of water, once again basaltic pebbles and weathered and oxidized basalt were found

All of the above findings are strong indicators of a formerly emerged MAR. And they suggest that this volcanic terrain has sunk a minimum of 12,300 ft since being exposed to the atmosphere. Note that Keith’s Table 1 lists six additional MAR sampling sites - to the south of those plotted on our Figure 6 and on down to the equator. Two of these sampling sites show ridge tops flattened by wave erosion, one revealed Tertiary-age shallow water sediment, and another revealed Cretaceous-age shallow water sediment. A final, rather startling finding consists of canyons and a trellis drainage system, quite possibly formed subaerially at a depth greater than 9800 ft. The MAR location is between 26º and 27ºN.

Fig. 6. Physiographic diagram of the Azores region, based on a diagram by B. Heezen and M. Tharp. See text for an explanation of red dots A-C, sites of deep-water sampling of subaerial material representative of an emergent continent.
(Subaerial refers to conditions and processes that exist or operate in the open air on and immediately adjacent to a land surface).

As quoted from Keith (p. 266), additional evidence of former exposure of the MAR consists of,

“…extensive denudation of oceanic crust [and] development of deep canyons and trellis drainage patterns along fault scarps of the MAR (Tucholke et al., 1997). Tucholke et al. attributed the modified topography to sub-ocean mass wasting but erosional features … out to about 300 km [185 miles] from the axis, favor Recent subaerial exposure and erosion of the ridge crest. Former broader subaerial exposure, and progressive subsidence, is indicated by borehole intersections at off-axis sites….The stratigraphy of those borehole sections provides evidence of broad exposure of the ridge followed by ridge subsidence, [and] narrowing of the active volcanic zone….”
(Keith, p. 266).

Example of Cooling, Sinking, and Narrowing of the MAR Through Time

To illustrate the above process in map view, we have modified Keith’s Figure 9 and turned it into our Figure 7.

Fig. 7. Snapshots of a Cretaceous-to-Recent time sequence for a sector of the sinking Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between the Azores and the Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone, to show narrowing of the active volcanic zone, the proposed mechanism for generating oceanic magnetic stripes. The narrowing color pattern shows the extent of active volcanism at each selected stage of ridge sinking and cooling. The trailing of the crestward-retreating outer limit of volcanism is taken to be associated with progressive cooling of the ridge and with the migrating trace of the blocking temperature isotherm, at which remnant magnetism is frozen-in, thus recording the inclination and reversals of the Earth’s magnetic field. Approximate magnetic anomaly ages in the upper right of each panel are from Kent and Gradstein (1986).
See caption for Fig. 4, for complete citation. Ma = millions of years before the present.

Summary of Prof. Keith’s Proposed Global Model

This article would be too long if I were to go into any more of the aspects of the professor’s marvelous analytical piece of work. The evidence for emergence of Lemuria will be dealt with in a separate article. Keith’s application of the results of his literature review to continental rifts and their associations with oceanic rifts, to oceanic island-chain dynamics in the Pacific, and to a number of other important topics like hotspots must also be deferred.

Suffice it to say that Keith believed that the essence of his proposed global model “is that oceanic crust is a principal reservoir and that selective recycling of its components is a counter to weathering and riverine [sediment] transport from continent to ocean, and a key process in the self-regulating Earth system” (p. 282). He has little to say about the forces that drove the Mesozoic mantle surge, other than to say that there is a strong possibility that it may have been triggered by a cluster of meteorite impacts in the western equatorial Pacific. These impacts may have reactivated lower mantle, during a surge-promoted change from layered to whole-mantle convection. Deep “roll-margin” mantle recycling associated with the proposed impact-triggered change from layered to whole-mantle convection, and resultant mantle surge is deduced to have formed a range of mixtures that apparently constituted a source of Cretaceous basaltic magma and oceanic crust.

References:

Keith, M., 2001, "Evidence for a Plate Tectonics Debate," Earth-Science Reviews, 55 pp. 235-336.

[Adam Hawthorne]

Back in 1894, Professor Spencer Todd was convinced that the American continent was sinking:


THIS CONTINENT IS SINKING.; At Least that Is What Prof. Spencer Told the Geologists.

    *
      E-MAIL

August 16, 1894, Wednesday

Page 4, 859 words

The meetings of the scientific societies being held in Brooklyn are of a most instructive and entertaining nature, and marked attention is being paid to the able papers read by the learned specialists. One of the most interesting papers read so far was that by Prof. J. W. Spencer, before the Geological Society of America.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=950DE4DC1730E033A25755C1A96E9C94659ED7CF

[Adam Hawthorne]

Great work on getting the Hutton find, Horus.  If you don't mind, I will start a separate topic on it to garner it more attention.

[Adam Hawthorne]

Chapter V: Can Lands Sink and Rise?

I. Destructions

krakatao volcano eruption

We will deal here with cities, islands, civilizations lost because of calamities.

According to Roman history and tradition, Vesuvius had never erupted before August 79 AD. It only smoked a bit from time to time. The explosion was extremely violent; it covered the city of Pompeii  with ashes and killed 2000 people. Since that time, Vesuvius has had numerous minor eruptions and 18 major ones, the last one in 1944.

In the spring of 1902, Mont Pelee (Martinique)  in the Caribbean erupted and besides wiping out the biggest city of the country, Saint Pierre, it killed 30,000 people. The cone had been dormant for half a century. The only survivor was a prisoner in an underground dungeon.

In 1883, the violent explosion of Krakatao sent bits of pumice and dust up into the air 20 miles. Some of the dust was carried completely around the world by currents in the upper air. The entire mountain disappeared. The eruption cracked walls in Buitenzorg, Java, 100 miles away. The tidal wave that was created engulfed the neighboring shored and killed 36,000 people. The detonation was heard for 3,000 miles.

In the same area, in 1815, the volcano Tomboro on the island of Sumbawa took 12,000 lives.

In October 1822, another earthquake occurred on the island of Java. Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, says "the earth shook, and immense columns of hot water and boiling mud, mixed with burning brimstone, ashes, and lapilli, of the size of nuts, were projected from the mountain like a water-spout, with such prodigious violence that large quantities fell beyond the river Tandoi, which is forty miles distant." Four days later a second volcano eruption occurred accompanied by a violent earthquake and the summit of the mountain broke down. Over 4,000 people were killed and 114 villages destroyed. And this happened back then, when population wasn't as dense as it is now.

In 1912, in Alaska, Katmai erupted and blanketed Kodiak, 100 miles away, under a 10- to 12-inch fall of ash.

These are a couple of examples from modern times.

However, 6500 years ago Mount Mazama erupted and created the Crater Lake, in America. The volcano displaced about 17 cubic miles of rock. The mountain was swallowed  up in its own crater.

Helike and Bora are ancient Greek islands that sank during Plato's time. You will find more information on the legendary city of Helike later on.

According to Pliny, in 186 BC, in the gulf of Santorini, near Greece, the island of Old Kaimeni (the Sacred Island) emerged from the sea. In 19 AD, Thera (the Divine, Santorini), home of the Mynoan civilization appeared. However, parts of this island had sunk around  1,600 BC after a powerful eruption. The volcano sent the rocks swirling in the sky and to the island of Crete. Stones from Santorini are found on Crete. I will debate over this when I mention Santorini as a possible location for Atlantis. Also, in 1573 AD, another island was created and it was called "the small sunburnt island". In 1848, another volcanic convulsion that lasted three months created a great shoal. Since Santorini had emerged, the island went on sinking until, by the end of the 19th century, it had submerged 1200 feet.

 
II. Lands that Rise and Sink

Let's start with some easy examples. Within 5,000 years the shores of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have risen from 200 to 600 feet. The coast or Peru continues to sink. Professor Winchell (The Preadamites) says that in 70 years the Andes sank 220 feet. Also, "the coast of South America lifted up bodily ten or fifteen feet and let down again in an hour".

Most of the information above uses as a source Ignatius Donnelly's book, Atlantis, the Antediluvian World. Other data was gathered from the net, from reliable sources.

In 1783, Iceland was touched by tremendous earthquakes. According to Donnelly, "about a month previous to the eruption on the main-land a submarine volcano burst forth in the sea at a distance of thirty miles from the shore. It ejected so much pumice that the sea was covered with it for a distance of 150 miles, and ships were considerably embedded in their course". An island emerged, and the Danish Majesty claimed it. It was called the "New Island". A year later, the island sank again, at about 30 fathom under water. The earthquake killed 9,000 people out of a population of 50,000.

The most interesting account is that of the Mexican volcano of Paricutin, west of Mexico City. It belongs to the Sierra Madre range. For 15 days before its appearance the earth trembled. In February 1943, a farmer who was plowing his cornfield saw a spiral of steam rising from the ground. Explosions rocked the night and by morning, the volcano had built up a cone of 50 feet. The puffs ejected every six seconds cinders, ash, and bombs of solid rock estimated at 2,700 tons a minute. Within six months the cone had reached 1,000 feet, and in one year it had reached 1,500 feet. For a radius of 20 miles all vegetation was killed and more than 8,000 people had to be evacuated. The volcano ceased to erupt in 1952. Its neighbor, El Jorullo, was born in 1759 and was active for 19 years.

In 1819, the fort and village of Sindree (east side of Indus), was submerged by an earthquake, together with a tract of country 2000 miles in extent.

In 1831, in Sicily, as a result of an earthquake, a whole new island emerged. It was called "Graham's Island". It reached a height of 200 feet and a circumference of three miles, in a month. Soon, however, it sank again.

In 1737, as a result of an earthquake and hurricane in Calcutta, India, 300 000 people died.

In November 1775, Lisbon (Portugal) an earthquake threw down the greater part of the city. In six minutes 60,000 people died. The area where the quay sank was at the end of the 19th century 600 feet deep.

In September 1730, in the Canaries, the earth opened near Year, in Lancerota Island. Several explosions created a hill of ejected matter. Eruptions continued and lava ran over villages and ten days later the lava had reached the sea. Putrid vapors condensed into drops killed the cattle around the country. The storms going on at that time were stronger than anything seen before by the people. The thing has lasted for five years, and the lava covered one-third of the island.

In 1963, a fishing boat off the south coast of Iceland radioed the base to report a cloud of smoke raising from the ocean. An explosion sent rocks flying out of the sea and a black land emerged from the depths. A weak later, the island was 200 feet above sea level and, since eruptions continued, by 1967 was 500 feet high and a mile long. The island was named Surtsey. Nowadays, the land is inhabited by birds and plants.

According to A. Tomas, Atlantis from Legend to Discovery, in 1780 a Spanish explorer, Maurelle found an island in South Pacific. The island was called Falcon. In 1892, the Government of Tonga planted 2000 coconut trees on the island, however, in 1894 the island was gone.

In 1135, in the Caspian Sea, the fortress of Caravan-Sarai rose from the waters, only to sink back again. In 1723, it rose again and it is still there nowadays.

In the Bay of Naples (Mediterranean), the sunk Temple of Jupiter-Serapis, built in 105 BC, rose again in 1742.

In Azores (has 12 volcanoes) a volcano rose suddenly in 1808 in San Jorge, at a height of 3500 feet. It burnt for 6 days and desolated the whole island. In 1811, near San Miguel, another volcano rose creating an island 300 feet high. The place was called Sambrina, but it soon sank again. Other similar eruptions took place in 1691 and 1720.

I will quote now from Donnelly's book, that uses Lyell's Principles of Geology:

"In the Nautical Magazine for 1835 [...], and in Compte Rendus, April, 1838, accounts are given of a series of volcanic phenomena, earthquakes, troubled water, floating scoria, and columns of smoke, which have been observed at intervals since the middle of the last century, in a space of open sea between longitudes 20 degrees and 22 mins W., about half a degree south of the equator. These facts, says Mr. Darwin, seem to show that an island or archipelago is in progress of formation in the middle of Atlantic."

The examples could go on and on, but I think I have made my point. It's not so hard to believe anymore that a continent can sink and rise in a single night, or, if you are still doubting that, in 1 matter of months.

http://atlantis.haktanir.org/ch5.html