Abstract
THE revival of the idea of a former “Atlantis” has given rise in recent years to much ingenious argument. The presence of so many widely separated islands or groups of islets along the depression filled by the Atlantic Ocean has to some writers been in itself sufficient proof of a submerged continent, the islands remaining still above water as the last visible relics of the foundered land. The same conclusion has been drawn from the Atlantic soundings, which have undoubtedly shown the existence of a long ridge running down the length of the Atlantic at an average depth of some 2000 fathoms from the surface. From this ridge rise the oceanic islands of Tristan d'Acunha, Ascension, St. Paul, the Azores, and Iceland. Other writers have invoked the former presence of land over the Atlantic area, from the difficulty of otherwise accounting for the resemblance of the flora in North America and Europe during later geological times. On the other hand, it has been forcibly argued that in every case the peaks of the supposed submerged land are of volcanic origin, that not a single fragment of any truly continental rock has been detected on any of these islands, and therefore that no evidence can be adduced save of a submarine ridge on which volcanic cones have gradually been built up above the sea-level. Reasoning based on similar data furnished by the other great oceans, and also upon the evidence supplied by the stratified rocks as to the permanence of the continental areas, has led many thoughtful geologists to regard the ocean-basins as primeval depressions of the globe's surface, and consequently to reject the tempting hypothesis of a lost Atlantis.
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GEIKIE, A. A SEARCH FOR “ATLANTIS” WITH THE MICROSCOPE . Nature 27, 25–26 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/027025a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027025a0