Geologists, exploring the seabed off Lanzarote in the Canaries, using a remotely operated vehicle, at depths of 330 to 8200 feet, have discovered lost islands with their beaches intact. This means they were at one time above the surface. Is this the origin of the Atlantis legend? we are advised. See https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/volcanos/this-could-be-the-origin-of-the-atlantis-legend-mountain-that-sank-beneath-the-waves-discovered-off-canary-islands …
This involves a huge seamount – or volcano on the bottom of the ocean that once was at the surface. In fact, we are told there were 3 volcanoes – and they were active millions of years ago. How could it have inspired the Atlantis legend?
The seamoount is 31 miles in diameter, at the top, but the seamount itself goes down 1.4 miles. That sounds like a big chimney. We are then told the top of it would have been a series of islands during the Eocene – dated 56 to 34 million years ago on the geological column. However, the discovery of beaches are quite different – just 200 feet below the surface. This may indicate a fairly recent seamount peeping out of the depths. Racking their brains, I suppose, they offer the lame idea it might go back to the last Ice Age. Here they really mean the Late Glacial Period which came to an end between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago. That is still very ancient for the Atlantis legend. Perhaps we should just forget that idea. Just because the sea level was lower in the North Atlantic does not mean it was lower in the tropics. What could have been a period of surface emergence might have something to do with the position of the equatorial bulge. If the equator was somewhat different at some point in the Holocene one might think a change in the position of earth’s dipole may have triggered sea level change. The same goes for the Lyonesse legend in Cornwall – or the drowning of the North Sea, Solent, and the Arabian Gulf around 6000BC. Is the earth’s geoid subject to change?
The geologists end by saying their next task will be to examine the samples collected by the submersible in order to ascertain when it was dry land – and to put a firm date on when the seamount was volcanically active.