Can we trust Plato’s Dating?
As mentioned earlier, Solon received the translation of the Atlantis legend from an Egyptian priest in Sais and he was to have recorded what he learned in a poem. Based on that now lost writing, Plato noted that the destruction of Atlantis occurred about 9,000 years before the last decades of Solon’s life. In an effort to set a general timeline we made these very basic assumptions: the Platonic time span of 9,000 years is reasonably accurate and refers to a standard 365-day solar year; and, since Solon is thought by some to have returned from his Egyptian travels around 594 BCE and his death is estimated at about 558 BCE, then the destruction of Atlantis would have occurred in the date-range from approximately 9,594 to 9,558 BCE, or ~11,566 – 11,602 years ago, with a small margin for error. The challenge now is to determine whether there is any evidence to corroborate that a natural catastrophe of this magnitude, lasting a full day and night as Plato described, could have occurred at the time in question. You will remember that we have already begun to answer that question by noting the climatological disasters of the Younger-Dryas.
By continuing that earlier observation, after a series of deglaciation warming trends at the technical end of the Pleistocene ice ages, the beginning of the Younger-Dryas was characterized by a rapid return to freezing glacial conditions in northern latitudes nearly 12,900 years ago. Reliable peat bog, tree ring, lake sediment cores and ice core measurements from around the planet indicate the Younger-Dryas (named after a wild flower that grew robust during the short geologic time period) ended about 11,550 +/-30 years ago and its termination is marked by a sudden catastrophic step by step increase in mean atmospheric temperature of approximately 10 degrees Celsius in less than two decades. Many scholars are reviewing the field data to gain some perspective on the prevailing questions pertaining to what mechanisms may have initiated these natural disasters that distinguish the tumultuous entrance and exit of the Younger-Dryas. But while the investigations continue, we can confidently and factually state that whatever the catastrophic event that acted as usher for the end of the Younger-Dryas period, it was scientifically measured by several scholarly teams with completely different methods, analyzing peat, tree rings, lake sediment and ice cores, to have occurred at exactly, not just nearly, at exactly, the same time Plato and the Egyptians claim the mysterious scorching-hot wrath from the gods laid waste to the planet some 11,566-11,602 years ago. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but given the increasing strength of the overall hypothesis detailed in this paper, it seems we can reasonably suggest that the anomalous atmospheric and climate changes precipitating the end of the Younger-Dryas appear to be directly associated with the same catastrophic events that led to the displacement and dispersion of the inhabitants of Atlantis-Bakhu, driven away from their island garden paradise. It could have been considered an expulsion, if you will, by a jealous and angry god and/or goddess.
Geologic Observations and Anomalies
To begin this section, a few notes should be inserted to address a question pertaining to the erosive effects typically associated with a catastrophic outflow of a large body of water. Specifically, since our argument states the proposed Saharan-Atlantic Sea, formally covering the westernmost reaches of the Sahara desert of today, drained from the top of the suddenly uplifted continent and down into the Mediterranean basin through, among other places, the Gulf of Gabes in modern Tunisia, why have seafloor studies in this area found no evidence of carved river beds, canyons, or deltas? Unlike other physical examples of catastrophic water flows, such as the inflows and outflows of the Black Sea through the Bosporus strait which do have evidence of these signatures, the strong forces released by the draining waters of the Saharan-Atlantic into the Mediterranean basin through the Gulf of Gabes would have been appreciably dampened by the existing sea itself. One can visualize this phenomenon by considering the action of water from a tap when filling a bathing tub which has a few centimeters of soft clay lining its bottom. When the valve is opened, the inflow into the empty basin is exerting a large amount of erosive force on the clay floor of the tub, much like the catastrophic flows measured on both sides of the Bosporus; but as the tub fills, these destructive forces on the floor of the tub are significantly dampened by resistance from the increasing depth of water now above and covering it, which appears to represent the catastrophic outflow of the Saharan-Atlantic as indicated in Figure 1. Hence, we would expect to find only subtle erosive artifacts from the catastrophic draining and subsequent flooding on the seafloor in the area of the Gulf of Gabes.
Along these lines, we can also address current regional climatological models which, based on relative concentration of pollen spores and other studies from the area, seem to indicate an aridification of large areas surrounding the central-Saharan drainage system during the Younger Dryas, including Tunisia in the northwest. This supposed dry condition was immediately followed by a signficant explosive greening of most of the Sahara which lasted for the next 5,000 years. Since some of the studies that led to the assumptive conclusion assigning arid conditions for the Sahara were done in areas that our hypothesis indicates were under the shallow Saharan-Atlantic Sea, it seems possible for the findings to have been misleading. As an alternative interpretation of the data, we suggest that the relative sterility of the sampling is indicative of the conditions one would expect from samples that were taken from a former seafloor, where sparce vegetative growth is not atypical. Also, when the sudden catastrophic draining of the proposed sea began as a result of the continental uplift, it would seem to follow that at least some of the sediment material overlying the seafloor covering much of modern Tunisia would have been carried into the Mediterranean basin by the currents, possibly further confusing the findings in this area. Again, as mentioned above, with the termination of the Younger Dryas and during the birth pangs of the Holocene, studies indicate vast areas of the Sahara that were previously as sterile as a dry desert (or seafloor), quickly cover with lush vegetation which was surely concurrent with the return of a variety of fauna. The rapid growth of vegetation is also consistent with our hypothesis since the nutrient rich sediment that remained after the sea drained would have promoted explosive plant growth. These circumstances and conditions appear to be consistent with scientific expectations generated by our arguments.
Furthermore, one may be inclined to ask a question about the salinity of our proposed Saharan-Atlantic Sea, since evidence obtained from the deserts of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, which has been dated during the Younger Dryas, indicates primarily freshwater covered parts of this region. So, if as we suggest, the Saharan-Atlantic Sea was continuous with the salty modern Mediterranean Sea before the catastrophic draining, then where is the salt deposition in those deserts? In this case, we will suggest that the Saharan-Atlantic Sea was similar to a very large meromictic lake, where density stratified saline and freshwater rarely mix in climates where seasonal temperature gradients are slight, such as in the southern Mediterranean, resulting in a stabilization of stratified layers with saline concentrations confined to the deeper areas of the basin and freshwater occupying the surface layers. Thus, widespread sea salt deposits (as opposed to leached deposits) would not be expected in the Sahara according to our hypothesis, but would be and are found on the floor of the western Mediterranean basin. And, as mentioned much earlier, if the African and Eurasian Plate margins were positioned deeper in the asthenosphere, then a much greater volume of European glacial meltwater and central Saharan highland drainage would have been flowing into the Saharan-Atlantic Sea contributing to the fresh/saline stratification.
As suggested earlier and as indicated by our models, the proposed sudden rapid epeirogenic-like continental uplift of NW Africa may have been a manifestation of a much larger apparently uniform easterly roll of the northern aspects of the African Plate itself. We have argued that the general dynamics of this rare combination of macroscopic tectonic forces, which may now include a powerful cosmic down-thrust component, can be envisioned by considering an iceberg in the ocean at a critical gravitational tipping-point since the tectonic plates are also imperceptibly floating on the Earth’s hot and viscous mantle, which is much like very dense clay in slow-motion. A diastrophic dynamic sufficient in magnitude to cause major deformations in the Earth’s crust would likely have left bits and pieces of physical evidence in its wake strewn all about the planet in a variety of scientifically measurable forms. This evidence may manifest itself in the numerous seemingly inexplicable geologic anomalies (Fig. 7) that our model has the ability to address.
Based on our hypothesis, after the apparently widespread seismic activity and tectonic forces waned, the sudden massive shifting, tilting movement of the Earth’s crust (similar to a fulcrum and lever effect shown in the top diagram of Figure 7 – image on left, click to enlarge) would have left the northwestern margin of the African continent uplifted, as we find today, explaining the seemingly confounding ~1,500 feet in elevation of the proposed Saharan-Atlas site for Atlantis-Bakhu. This broad redistribution of forces in an area spanning tectonic boundaries connecting the African, North American, Eurasian and Arabian Plates, would have many measurable regional crustal deformation effects stretching from about the 28th to the 38th Latitude North and from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) in the west to the Zagros Mountains in the east. A subsequent review of geologic data in this area has in fact identified several tectonic studies that are investigating stretching, tearing and uplift anomalies on the thin newly formed seafloor approaching and along the MAR at the western most extension of the northern aspects of the African Plate. The first two of these anomalies are Atlantic Transform and Non-Transform Fault movements including uplifts inconsistent with current models, but consistent with the distribution of forces propagated through the seafloor defined by our fulcrum and lever model. The third anomaly is on the western side of the plate margin (i.e., on the North American Plate) where a rather large unexplained submarine mountain, coincidentally named the Atlantis Massif, is present that could also be evidence of a transfer of uplift energy across the MAR.
Moving eastward in Figure 7, from the veritably thin flexible seafloor at the MAR to the thick African continent, the proposed uplift would have been most pronounced in the Atlas Mountain chain at our site for Atlantis-Bakhu since it is located at the edge of the continent. This can be visualized through the diagrammatic fulcrum and lever model. As it depicts, the African Plate and sea-floor can be compared to a seesaw with a thin flexible sheet connected to it, such that when the catastrophic uplift and down-thrust forces were applied, the seesaw (African Plate) tilted dragging the sheet (sea-floor) along. As a result, the western-most edge of the massive rigid African Plate, including the alpine Atlas Mountain Range, was thrust upward accounting for both the high elevation of our proposed site and the stretching, tearing, uplift near the MAR.
Arabian Plate Subduction: the Zagros Mountains
In the east, where the African and Eurasian Plates are in direct interaction with the relatively small Arabian Plate, two groupings of geologic anomalies studied in the Zagros Mountains area may also be explained by the sudden macroscopic deformations of the crustal plates depicted in our model. The first of these Zagros anomalies is a series of reactivation fractures or fault zones that are clumsy in current models. Our hemispheric fulcrum and lever diagram indicates that if the western aspects of the African Plate were uplifted as we’ve proposed, then the eastern-most region of the gigantic plate would have been violently down-thrust displacing the mantle beneath while transferring a copious amount of initial down-thrust energy across and along the NW to SE line connecting it to the Arabian Plate. Reasoning on this macroscopic scale, a transfer of initial down-thrust force along the Arabian Plate margin would have been quickly released as the African Plate slipped past the smaller plate resulting in rapid rebounding uplift of the Arabian Plate all along the common plate margin.
It may help to visualize this dynamic by remembering the old Victorian game now known as Tiddlywinks which uses a Squidger and a Wink to transfer energy from one game piece to another. In our model, the large African Plate would have acted as a Squidger upon the much smaller Arabian Plate or Wink. When the African Plate (Squidger) applied its down-thrust forces along the margins of the Arabian Plate (Wink), it initially would have caused a slight down-thrust subsidence, but as the greater force of the African Plate suddenly slipped past the margin of the Arabian Plate, a very energetic rebounding effect would have resulted in a rapid and uniform uplift along the NW-SE line of the southwestern aspect of the Arabian Plate. This in turn, could have violently tipped the Arabian Plate slightly NE, fracturing the craton boundary along the slopes of the Zagros Mountains, leaving a series of reactivation areas/fault zones in its seismically turbulent wake. As our model predicts, the general topography of the Arabian Plate is in fact uniformly elevated along the African Plate margin and appears to be tipping down in the NE along a similar NW to SE margin with the Zagros Mountain Chain.
The second group of Zagros anomalies potentially explained by our uniform uplifting and tipping model focuses on perplexing Bougure gravity data at the subducting boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian plates. We suggest that the uniform tipping of the Arabian Plate to the NE would project that NE margin deeper into the mantle causing the development of a gap between the subducting Arabian Plate and the Eurasian Plate beneath the Zagros Region. Since these plates typically rest upon each other, the sudden creation of a gap would reduce the pressure on the plates. This would allow plastic expansion of lithosphere into the gap effectively reducing its density and thereby fitting rather well with current measurements where the material in this region is conjectured to be of lower density based on the gravity readings. Additionally, there has been an unusual earthquake detected at over 100 km below the surface which exceeds the expected plate depth in this area. Our proposed Arabian Plate dynamic would allow for this earthquake since, as mentioned above, the uniform tipping motion would have thrust the NE margin of the plate deeper into the action of the mantle allowing earthquakes at greater depths. So, it seems that anomalous field measurements such as Bougure gravity data and deep seismic activity can be generally accounted for by our model’s super-down-thrust movement of the Arabian Plate.