by emad » Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:42 am
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40691000/gif/_40691858_spain_spartel_map203.gif">newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/i...map203.gif</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered. <br><br>Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water. <br><br>The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago. <br><br>Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology. <br><br>Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami. <br><br>Shaken sediments <br><br>Dr Gutscher said that the destruction described by Plato is consistent with a great earthquake and tsunami similar to the one that devastated the city of Lisbon in Portugal in 1755, generating waves with heights of up to 10m. <br><br> <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40691000/jpg/_40691236_bbccity_bbc_203.jpg">newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/i...bc_203.jpg</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Some think the Atlantis legend was inspired by real events <br><br>The thick "turbidite" deposit results from sediments that have been shaken up by underwater geological upheavals. <br><br>It was found to date to around 12,000 years ago - roughly the age indicated by Plato for the destruction of Atlantis, Dr Gutscher reports in Geology. <br><br>Spartel Island, in the Gulf of Cadiz, was proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard. <br><br>It is "in front of the Pillars of Hercules", or the Straits of Gibraltar, as Plato described. The philosopher said the fabled island civilisation had been destroyed in a single day and night, disappearing below the sea. <br><br>Sedimentary records reveal that events like the 1755 Lisbon earthquake occur every 1,500 to 2,000 years in the Gulf of Cadiz. <br><br>But the mapping of the island carried out by Dr Gutscher failed to turn up any manmade structures and also showed that the island was much smaller than previously believed. <br><br>This could make it less likely that the island was inhabited by a civilisation. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4153008.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4153008.stm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> <br> <p></p><i></i>
