Lost islands found: Could this be the real inspiration for Atlantis?
The Live Science portal reports that an underwater mountain with three inactive volcanoes could have inspired the legend of Atlantis. Spanish scientists have discovered the lost islands that sank deep underwater millions of years ago.
– This could be the origin of the Atlantis legend, – said Luis Somoza, who is involved in a research project on volcanic activity off the coast of the Canary Islands, in an interview with Live Science. His team found an underwater mountain with three inactive volcanoes. Its diameter reaches 50 kilometres, and its base is about 2.2 kilometres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean—the discoverers named the mountain Los Atlantes.
Sunken mountain. It could be the beginning of the legend of Atlantis
The discovery of the mountain, sunk to a depth of several kilometres, was aided by a remotely operated vehicle scientists used to explore the seabed off the eastern coast of Lanzarote, the easternmost Canary Island—the project aimed to understand underwater volcanic and hydrothermal activity in the region.
As has been determined, the Los Atlantes mountain was a cluster of islands during the Eocene (a period from 56-34 million years ago). When the volcanoes stopped erupting, the lava began to harden, and over time, the islands started to sink into the Atlantic. However, they retained their character, which scientists confirmed in their research. – We have identified beaches, cliffs and sand dunes at the flat summit of the seamount, explained Somoza.
Researchers also point out that some identified underwater beaches are just 60 metres below the ocean's surface. Previously, no one either paid attention to them or examined them closely. Such a shallow depth, according to scientists, means that during the last ice age, when sea levels were much lower than today, the underwater mountain could have been home to wildlife.
No traces of civilisation. Another expedition next year
Although Somoza himself mentions the legend of Atlantis (which holds that a highly developed civilisation sank into the ocean in one day and night) first mentioned by Plato around 360 B.C., so far scientists have not identified any traces of civilisation under the ocean near the Canary Islands.
The discovery partially matches the mythical Atlantis, as the once-sunken island could have been inhabited. However, there is no evidence to confirm this thesis with absolute certainty.
The team led by Somoza will soon analyse samples collected from Los Atlantes. This will likely help determine the age of the volcanic rocks and establish when the islands began to sink. Next year, the team plans to return to the underwater mountains and volcanoes to examine them more closely.
