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Atlantis
It now appears that at least a great deal of
what we now call continental drift is driven by asteroidal impacts
that go through the Earth's crust to the mantle. Since the basalt
of the Earth's mantle is already hot enough to melt, it does melt when the surface rocks are removed by such an impact. But since the density of the basalt goes down on melting, the molten magma fills the crater. It is now thought that the North Atlantic seafloor spreading may have started this way at Iceland, And that the South Atlantic
seafloor spreading may have started at the south end of Africa some
two hundred and fifty million years ago. Now since the floor of the
Atlantic appears to be spreading from the center, it does not seem
likely that there is a continent sunk under the ocean off the west
coast of Europe. And that makes it very unlikely that the Atlantis
legend refers to any such continent. Also the legend dates from before
the time when the term Atlantic referred to the ocean west of Europe. Most probably the
legend referred originally to the volcanic explosion north of Crete,
on what is now known as the island of Santorini. Jacques Yves Cousteau
has a two-hour television program on that explosion. The volcano
blew up around fifteen hundred B.C. and brought to an end the domination
of the Mediterranean Basin by the Minoans whose civilization was centered on Crete. The Mycenaean Greeks used to pay taxes to the Minoans till after that explosion. The Minoans on Crete had the best forests and the best boats, but unfortunately for them, their island was only seventy miles south of this volcanic explosion. The earthquake waves would
have destroyed most of their buildings. The tsunami would have destroyed
most of their boats, and probably killed most of their people.
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