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Study: Atlantis Sinking Has Scientific Basis

Kilik

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Plato's account of how the fabled city of Atlantis sank below the surface of the ocean does have scientific grounding, according to a seafloor survey of an island west of the Straits of Gibraltar.

Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, performed a detailed mapping of the seafloor on Spartel Island, already proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard.


Lying 60 meters beneath the surface in the Gulf of Cadiz, the island is right "in front of the Pillars of Hercules," or the Straits of Gibraltar, as stated by Plato.

Analysis of sedimentary deposits revealed a large earthquake and a tsunami hit the island about 12,000 years ago, roughly the time indicated in the Greek philosopher's writings for the destruction of the city, Gutscher reports in the current issue of Geology.

"Geological records revealed that in the geographic region chosen by Plato for his narrative, there are recurrent great earthquakes (magnitude 8.5-9) which create enormous tsunamis, with waves 5-15 meters in height. One such catastrophic event occurred around 10,000 B.C.," Gutscher told Discovery News.
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http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050808/atlantis.html
 
I would have thought that the great technological wizards of Atlantis, who wereso advanced that they built the pyramids and spaceships and such, could have made Atlantis safe from mere tsunamis.
 
This is what Gutscher has to say about it himself:
The bottom line is, Spartel was not inhabited by an advanced bronze age culture. So the Atlantis hunters can keep searching.

kind regards,

Marc-Andre Gutscher
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And from this site:
Due to the fact that this location perfectly fits the mostly presumed – jet mistaken! – assumption that the Pillars of Heracles are identical with the Strait of Gibraltar, this theory received a lot of attention. It has to be pointed out, though, that neither the Phoenicians nor the Romans had an idea where to look for these Pillars. According to Tacitus (100 AD) Drus Germanicus was searching them in Germany and Servius (400 AD) concluded: “We pass through the Pillars of Heracles in the Black Sea as well as in Spain.”
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So the tsunami hit the island, wiped it completely from the face of the planet, then continued on to wipe it from the memory of the Greeks and the Egyptians, and then wipe it from all documents and records, and also destroy any artefacts or technology anywhere in the world and finally regress humanity's knowledge to a pre Atlantean state.

That's quite the Tsunami.
 
That time period coincides with the ice age, so that would definitely be quite a tsunami
 
Ashles said:
So the tsunami hit the island, wiped it completely from the face of the planet, then continued on to wipe it from the memory of the Greeks and the Egyptians, and then wipe it from all documents and records, and also destroy any artefacts or technology anywhere in the world and finally regress humanity's knowledge to a pre Atlantean state.

That's quite the Tsunami.
Click to expand...
Good thing Edgar Cayce's mind is tsunami proof.
 
Ashles said:
So the tsunami hit the island, wiped it completely from the face of the planet, then continued on to wipe it from the memory of the Greeks and the Egyptians, and then wipe it from all documents and records, and also destroy any artefacts or technology anywhere in the world and finally regress humanity's knowledge to a pre Atlantean state.

That's quite the Tsunami.
Click to expand...

Well, duh! All the records were in the Library at Alexandria! I know it probably won't happen in my lifetime, but I am hopefull that my children will see the day when these "lost" archives are finally liberated from the mountain bunkers of Area 51.
 
This just in:

Fairies could fly if they flap their wings hard enough.

Aliens could fly faster than light if they had a warp drive.

Uri Geller could bend spoons with a matter transmogrifier.
 
"That time period coincides with the ice age, so that would definitely be quite a tsunami"

Killik, you know how tsunamis are generated?

If you know, then you know that there are no links between the end of a glaciation and the formation of a tsunami.
 
Map of the Mediterranean Sea, circa 10,000 BC:

my.php




Edit to try to show map
 
So this is another case of a headline exaggerating the actual science. There's no evidence here for the EXISTENCE of Atlantis or any sort of Atlantean culture, only a possible factual basis for the mechanism of its legendary destruction, had it existed.

And when such a major disaster occurs in reality, the details are told and retold, giving rise to all sorts of myths. And of course, once there's a legend of the destruction of Atlantis, then additional myths about its amazing existence must follow.
 
Correa Neto said:
"That time period coincides with the ice age, so that would definitely be quite a tsunami"

Killik, you know how tsunamis are generated?

If you know, then you know that there are no links between the end of a glaciation and the formation of a tsunami.
Click to expand...

To be fair, while your statement is technically true, there is a link between glaciers and mega-tsunamis. Of course, this link also applies to coastal volcanos, avalanches, etc, etc, etc. Basically, when any large object (like a chunk off a glacier) falls it can create waves much larger than those produced by an earthquake could be.

Not that I believe this Atlantis theory is worth as much as toilet paper (at least TP is useful for something, after all), but glaciation could have a link with tsunamis.
 
So, the link, as far as I know, is when a large chunk of a glacier falls in to a body of water. Very tall waves are know to have been created when glaciers´fronts collapse at the end of fjords.

I´m not sure if the collapse of a glacier wall (even a large Antarctica ice shelf-type) within the sea could create something similar. Actually I would guess that this would be unlikely, but that´s just a guess. The volume of material moved by earthquakes is usually larger than collpased ice, and it movees up and down with a frequency that is larger than ice bounces in water.

Aniway, even if a giant glacier collapse could produce a tsunami wave that would reach Spartel Island, this would be absolutely irrelevant to Atlantis myth, even if there was a civilization there. Tsunamis, after all, advance an then retreat... The sea level remains unchanged. And even if Killik says that sea level raised after the melting, what sort of civilization would live within an island and occupy just its lower parts?
 
I think the point of this thread is that the newer and more modern the info, the closer it will be to supporting the kind of things that were considered myth, or even paranormal in the past. But it's still like probing around in the dark, or like a baby learning to walk of course.
 
You don't think it's possible that "newer and more modern info" might show "things that were considered myth, or even paranormal in the past" to be bunkum?
 
In just one word...

KABOOOOM!

(actually not a perfect description, since the eruption lasted much longer)

Thera/Santorini/Akrotiri is a candidate for the inspiration source of the Atlantis myth. Possibly one of the inspiration sources, since Helike also may have provided some of the pieces used by Plato to create the myth. Troy may also have been used.

Actually, one might wonder if Plato ever really knew about Akrotiri, since the eruption was a long time before his time. Helike, on the other hand, was closer to his time.
 
i have proof of atlantis!

i've been there!

it's this big hotel on paradise island in the bahamas!

(not funny)
 
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