Circumstantial Evidence of an Atlantic Ocean Cataclysm

[Warhammer]

From time immemorial, the Atlantic Ridge from Iceland to South America has been an area of considerable seismic activity. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are nothing extraordinary.

The Atlantic Ocean – Catastrophes:

In 1669, a major part of the notorious pirate island Port Royal sank due to an disastrous earthquake.

In 1775, Lisbon, which is on a parallel with the Azores at a latitude of 39 43'/36 55' N, was badly hit by a devastating earthquake killing 60 000 people. Moreover, both the harbour and the docks sank 200 metres to the ground.

In 1783, one fifth of the Icelandic population fell victim to a catastrophic earthquake.

In 1811, on the Azores, a volcanic island named “Sambrina“ rose some thousand metres to the surface and sank again shortly after. The islands of Corvi and Flores constantly change their shape and parts of them are swallowed up by the sea.

To the best of present knowledge there is an underwater area with deep valleys and high mountains around the Azores and the Canary Islands. Reducing the sea level by 150 metres to the Ice Age level brings about a huge piece of land which, however, does not match the dimensions Plato wrote about. Nevertheless, further westward, in the Caribbean area, a huge land mass comes into existence which perfectly meets Platos records.

The Atlantic Ocean – Facts:

In 1969, by order of Duke University, an expedition to the Aves Ridge in the Caribbean Sea found granite on fifty locations. Usually, granite is found only onshore or where once had been solid ground.

In 1898, 750 km north of the Azores, the transatlantic cable broke. On this occasion, rock samples were taken from a depth of 17 000 fathoms. A close examination came to the result that the rock samples consisted of tachylyte, a lava-like substance. Yet this mineral would not emerge unless above sea level and under atmospheric pressure. Moreover, it will decompose after 15 000 years. This means that once there had been mainland.

In a depth of up to 1 000 metres, coastal sand was found on the reefs of the Azores. However, it usually only appears on flat beaches.

In 1936, the Geological Society of America conducted a study of sunken river canyons in the Atlantic Ocean. It says that rivers on the European, the North African and the American side sank into the continental sockets for up to 300 km in length and 2 km in depth. That means that in the Pleistocene Age, that is when mankind emerged, the sea level underwent a change in depth up to 2 000 metres.

http://www.atlantia.de/atlantis_english/myth/atlantis/atlantis_atlantic.htm

[Warhammer]

The Atlantic Ridge – one of the world’s most nororious regions in terms of seismic activity. Decreasing the sea level by 300 to 400 metres brings about a huge land mass that would perfectly fit Plato’s descriptions. In “Critias“, Plato writes:


“(...)In the next place, they had fountains, one of cold and another of hot water, in gracious plenty flowing; and they were wonderfully adapted for use by reason of the pleasantness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they made cisterns, some open to the heavens, others roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths (...)“

Usually, these warm and cold springs manifest themselves within continental zones. An example for this is Iceland where people use the warm springs to supply themselves with heat and energy – just as Plato put it.

Yet the Würm Ice Age 12 000 years ago is not a suitable candidate to have reduced the sea level along the Atlantic Ridge. Did, then, the catastrophe in the Atlantic Ocean indeed happen? That desaster with its devastating earthquakes and inundations that caused the mid-Atlantic Ridge to sink? Or is it all about an inundation of the Caribbean area with its shallow waters? Also, the point in time when the glaciers melted would perfectly meet the time of the disappearance of Atlantis as has been indicated by Plato.

Read the following excerpt from the Critias dialogue:

“(...)Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. (...)“


A further mystery concerns the migrations of the European eels. These animals spawn in the Sargasso Sea west of the United States of America. The newborn eels start their three years long eastbound migration following the Gulf Stream to the European rivers. Having reached sexual maturity they migrate back to the Sargasso Sea within four months, however leaving the Azores to their left this time. It has been proven that the eels need freshwater to reach maturity but why do they venture on this long journey across the Atlantic Ocean?

Could it be that the eels have a genetic memory of a mainland with freshwater in the Atlantic Ocean but cannot find it again because it sank? Is that why they keep on migrating until they reach Europe?

Another phenomenon relates to the suicide of the Norwegian lemmings. Every year when their homeland is running short of food, these little rodents start migrating westwards. At the end of their migration they jump into the ocean and continue swimming westwards until they drown. What is it these animals are after in the ocean? Are they following a basic instinct driving them into the ocean? Are they looking for a land that offered them plenty of food a long time ago? Was this land Atlantis, located in the Atlantic Ocean according to Plato?

http://www.atlantia.de/atlantis_english/myth/atlantis/atlantis_atlantic.htm

[Warhammer]

USA showered by a watery comet ~11,000 years ago, ending the Golden Age of man in America.

Approximately 11,000 years ago a variety of animals went extinct across North America. These were mostly mammals larger than approximately 44 kg. Some of the animals that went extinct are well known (like sabre toothed cats, mammoths and mastodons). Others were less well known animals (like the short-faced skunk, giant sloth and the giant beaver). Some animals went extinct in North America but survived elsewhere (like horses and tapirs).

Before this extinction the diversity of large mammals in North America was similar to that of modern Africa. As a result of the extinction, relatively few large mammals are now found in North America.

The possibility that a comet destroyed the mega fauna and human population of North America is highly likely.

Carolina Bays - 11,000 year old Impact sites, caused by bullets of water from a disintegrating comet.

Direct evidence of a cataclysmic event around the time of the Clovis hunters of America.

The geological formation of the oval shaped depressions termed Carolina Bays, which number in total, 500,000 litter the SW corner of North America. Their orientation across the landscape is in a NW to SE direction, with earth piled up on the SE rim up to 25 feet high. Carolina Bays tend to become more elliptical with increasing size - up to 10km long. This is consistent with a large body of water taking longer to dissipate as it travels at speed across the landscape. Large bays tend to be deeper than small bays and they tend to occur either in linear arrays or in complex clusters. The consistent repition of shape and alignment can mean only one thing. Comet impact.
It is believed that these depressions were not caused by a rocky comet as no heavy metals have been found in the craters, but by bullets of water hitting the ground from a disintegrating comet. There has been some disbelief that such a catastrophic event could have occured in human times, people have tried desperately to think of some other way that these depressions could have occured. The fact is that these depressions occur in sand, mud, soil, upland gravel, but not on any rocky outcrops. The only mechanism for similar shaped depressions to occur in a diverse range of sediments is by a massive body of water, travelling at a high velocity at a low trajectory and dumped upon the earth. All the craters show a similar amount of weathering and infilling, therefore they must be all of the same age. It has also been noted that there are two oval shaped craters on the bottom of the ocean, just north of the Grand Bahaman banks.Their orientation is consistent with a NW to SE trajectory comet impact. It is believed that these impact sites are associated with the Carolina Bays. Whether or not there are any craters on the bottom of the ocean, the nature of a disintegrating comet entering the atmosphere is that small pieces of debris break off first, the largest remaining piece/s travels the furthest. Therefore as there are 500,000 small craters along the Atlantic coast, one must assume that a significantly large body impacted the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a massive tsunami.

Core samples indicate the Carolina Bay formations was between 11-15,000 years ago, a more accurate date for their formation has not been ascertained as yet. Pollen samples indicate a pine forest prior to their formation changed to a deciduous forest after their formation. This change is seen in the core samples either side of a layer of sandy blue clay, devoid of pollen. This marks the time of creation of the lakes, and the resultant settling of dust after impact. The change in forest type after these depressions were formed indicates that they precipitated a radical climate change. Whoever was living in America at the time would have found this event totally devastating as shown in the following accounts of tribes from the area. Whether it was this, or a later event that destroyed Atlantis is yet to be determined.


http://users.on.net/~mkfenn/Catastrophes.htm

[Warhammer]

We come now to the second question, Is it possible that Atlantis could have been suddenly destroyed by such a convulsion of nature as is described by Plato? The ancients regarded this part of his story as a fable. With the wider knowledge which scientific research has afforded the modern world, we can affirm that such an event is not only possible, but that the history of even the last two centuries has furnished us with striking parallels for it. We now possess the record of numerous islands lifted above the waters, and others sunk beneath the waves, accompanied by storms and earthquakes similar to those which marked the destruction of Atlantis.

In 1783 Iceland was visited by convulsions more tremendous than any recorded in the modern annals of that country. 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 impeded in their course. A new island was thrown up, consisting of high cliffs, which was claimed by his Danish Majesty, and named "Nyöe," or the New Island; but before a year had elapsed it sunk beneath the sea, leaving a reef of rocks thirty fathoms under water.

The earthquake of 1783 in Iceland destroyed 9000 people out of a population of 50,000; twenty villages were consumed by fire or inundated by water, and a mass of lava thrown out greater than the entire bulk of Mont Blanc."

On the 8th of October, 1822, a great earthquake occurred on the island of Java, near the mountain of Galung Gung. "A loud explosion was heard, 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. . . . The first eruption lasted

p. 36

nearly five hours; and on the following days the rain fell ill torrents, and the rivers, densely charged with mud, deluged the country far and wide. At the end of four days (October 12th), a second eruption occurred, more violent than the first, in which hot water and mud were again vomited, and great blocks of basalt were thrown to the distance of seven miles from the volcano. There was at the same time a violent earthquake, the face of the mountain was utterly changed, its summits broken down, and one side, which had been covered with trees, became an enormous gulf in the form of a semicircle. Over 4000 persons were killed and 114 villages destroyed." (Lyell's "Principles of Geology," p. 430.)

In 1831 a new island was born in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Sicily. It was called Graham's Island. It came up with an earthquake, and "a water-spout sixty feet high and eight hundred yards in circumference rising from the sea." In about a month the island was two hundred feet high and three miles in circumference; it soon, however, stink beneath the sea.

The Canary Islands were probably a part of the original empire of Atlantis. On the 1st of September, 1730, the earth split open near Year, in the island of Lancerota. In one night a considerable hill of ejected matter was thrown up; in a few days another vent opened and gave out a lava stream which overran several villages. It flowed at first rapidly, like water, but became afterward heavy and slow, like honey. On the 11th of September more lava flowed out, covering up a village, and precipitating itself with a horrible roar into the sea. Dead fish floated on the waters in indescribable multitudes, or were thrown dying on the shore; the cattle throughout the country dropped lifeless to the ground, suffocated by putrid vapors, which condensed and fell down in drops. These manifestations were accompanied by a storm such as the people of the country had never known before. These dreadful commotions lasted for five years. The lavas thrown out covered one-third of the whole island of Lancerota.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/ataw104.htm

[Warhammer]

It is clear that the area along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, as well as the undersea volcanoes of the eastern Atlantic are extremely volatile.  Still, a brand new mechanism must be discovered in order to have sunk an island of the size that Plato suggests.

[Mario Dantas]

Dear Warhammer,


Aristotle wrote:

          [...]The evidence of the senses further corroborates this. How else would eclipses of the moon show segments shaped as we see them? As it is, the shapes which the moon itself each month shows are of every kind -- straight, gibbous, and concave -- but in eclipses the outline is always curved: and, since it is the interposition of the earth that makes the eclipse, the form of this line will be caused by the form of the earth's surface, which is therefore spherical.

          Again, our observations of the stars make it evident, not only that the earth is circular, but that it is a circle of no great size. For quite a small change of position to south or north causes a manifest alteration of the horizon. There is much change, I mean, in the stars which are overhead, and the stars seen are different, as one moves northward or southward. Indeed there are some stars seen in Egypt and in the neighborhood of Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions; and stars, which in the north are never beyond range of observation, in those regions rise and set.[...]

          All of which goes to show not only that the earth is circular in shape, but also that it is a sphere of no great size: for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be so quickly apparent. Hence one should not be too sure of the incredibility of the view of those who conceive that there is continuity between the parts about the pillars of Hercules and the parts about India, and that in this way the ocean is one.


(Aristotle, "On the Heavens," Book II, Chapter 14, The Works of Aristotle, Oxford University Press; pp. 297-298.)

When a ship is at the horizon its lower part is invisible due to Earth's curvature. This was one of the first arguments favoring a round-earth model.

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

The reason i am bringing this up is to show something not related to the discovery of the Earth sphericity by Aristoles, but rather the "sinking" of Atlantis from a different perspective.

If one imagine that a large Landmass was once situated in any point (A) on Earth, and dislocated to a distant point (B), you will have, apparently, a sink illusion. I am convinced that this was true for Atlantis, that is, observers did, in fact, see a dislocation and confounded it with a "sinking" motion.

M

[Mario Dantas]

Of course, my point being that there was no "Sinking", and that in reality what happened was "Illusory". A dislocation observation would appear to be a "Sinking".

[Mario Dantas]

i just read that it is Pitagoras first mentioned or hypothesized about a round Earth.  I have to say, even more interesting..

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

[Warhammer]

Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.


-Timaeus (the relevant parts)

[Warhammer]

The reason i am bringing this up is to show something not related to the discovery of the Earth sphericity by Aristoles, but rather the "sinking" of Atlantis from a different perspective.

If one imagine that a large Landmass was once situated in any point (A) on Earth, and dislocated to a distant point (B), you will have, apparently, a sink illusion. I am convinced that this was true for Atlantis, that is, observers did, in fact, see a dislocation and confounded it with a "sinking" motion.

That's an imaginative point on your behalf, Mario, but we must remember that, though the Greeks of Plato's time never saw Atlantis, they did think they knew where it was at because of the subsidence of the mud in the area where it had been.  The Greeks weren't known for their ocean voyages, though, so literally all their information was coming to them secondhand, perhaps from the Phoenicians.

[Warhammer]

The world according to Herodotus, (map courtesy of Bianca)

[Mario Dantas]

When i said observers i didn't want to be prejudicial. Many Peoples must have seen it (Atlantis Sinking) and registered it, for posterity, somehow, regardless of who they were.

[Eclipse of the Sun]

Hi Mario,

Depending on when it actually happened (even if it was 1500 bc), they were, at best getting the information secondhand.  The question is, how could they have heard about it in the first place and just how reliable those accounts were?

That's what, for me, gives the idea that an Atlantis closer to Greece is, at least, logical.  Witnesses were nearby who could testify to what happened, and the account could have been garbled over the years.

Place Atlantis in the Atlantic in the time frame Plato suggests and we'd have a hard time explaining how the account would have been accurate after such a long time.

[Mario Dantas]

Yes, i think, you are correct about that. but on the other hand, one can't rule out the possibility that there might be or was a registry at Sais, being responsible for that knowledge. Those records must have existed in stone and not in memory.

But, again, it is not a simple issue, i agree that it is a somewhat far fetched possibility. The fact that there wasn't found any evidence of this doesn't imply that it didn't exist, i ask why would Plato or Critias would lie about that important issue?

[Ian Nottingham]

Hey Mario,

You are right about there being a registry at Sais, at the Temple of Neith, which is the probable location of where Plato heard the story.  Unfortunately, nothing remains of the temple.  Unlike other Egyptian temples, nothing but rubble remains of it!  It would be invaluable to find the stone where Solon first read the story, to give corroboration to the story of Atlantis.

My thread on it:

http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,412.0.html