SCIENCE IN THE NEWS -January 22, 2002: Finding Atlantis
By Jerilyn Watson
VOICE ONE:
This is Doug Johnson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent
developments in science. Today we tell about efforts to find and prove the existence of the ancient lost city of
Atlantis.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
A French scientist believes he has identified the mysterious ancient city of Atlantis. Jacques Collina -Girard says
it probably was an island near Spain that sank about eleven-thousand years ago. He says he made the discovery
while studying levels of the Atlantic Ocean in ancient times.
For thousands of years, people told of the highly developed ancient civilization of Atlantis. The island-city
became a legend --a story repeated over time. The Greek writer Plato wrote about it more than two -thousandthree-
hundred years ago. Today, scientists are trying to find evidence of Atlantis and prove it existed.
VOICE TWO:
Jacques Collina-Girard says Atlantis was an island called Spartel. He says it was
about thirty-two kilometers southwest of what is now Tarifa, Spain and about
nineteen kilometers northwest of Tangier, Morocco. The scientist says Atlantis
’
remains now are sandy areas on the ocean bottom. He estimates that these remains
could be as deep as one-hundred-twenty-five meters below the surface of the ocean.
Mister Collina-Girard published his research in the
“Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.
”
The magazine “New Scientist”
also reported his
findings. Mister Collina-Girard works for the University of the Mediterranean in
Aix-en-Provence, France. He is an expert in the history, structure and development
of the Earth.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Collina-Girard studied levels of the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and
Morocco. He says this area contained seven islands during the last Ice Age about
twenty-thousand years ago. He believes the sea level at that time was about one
hundred-twenty meters lower than it is today.
The French scientist says the seven islands were at the west end of the Strait of Gibraltar. This is very similar to
where Plato placed Atlantis. Plato wrote that Atlantis was in front of what he called the Pillars of Hercules.
Mister Collina-Girard says the Pillars of Hercules now are known as the Strait of Gibraltar.
VOICE TWO:
Plato wrote about Atlantis in his works “Timaeus”
and “Critias.
”
He wrote that the people of Atlantis had a
highly developed civilization for many centuries. The island was a center for trade and business. He described the
people of Atlantis as powerful and intelligent. Their rulers governed areas of Europe and Africa in addition to
'Atlantis' returns
Today a space shuttle carries
the name
(Map -The World Factbook
2001)
their own island.
Plato described a land of beautiful mountains, valleys and rivers. The people enjoyed rich harvests and grew
many kinds of herbs, fruits and nuts. Many animals lived on Atlantis, including a large population of elephants.
Plato wrote that the society was a happy one for centuries. In its last years, however, the people were guilty of
great wrongdoing. The gods punished them by destroying their city.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
Ice covered large parts of the Earth during the Ice Age. When the Ice Age ended, the Earth warmed. Much of the
ice melted. Mister Collina-Girard says this caused the sea level to rise for about fifteen-thousand years. At first it
rose slowly. Then it rose faster as time passed.
Toward the end of the melting period, the ocean covered all but Atlantis and one other island. Mister Collina -
Girard reports that the sea rose an average of two-point-four meters during each of the last three -hundred years
that Atlantis existed. About eleven-thousand years ago, the scientist says Atlantis disappeared under the water.
VOICE TWO: Plato wrote a different ending for Atlantis. He wrote that volcanoes destroyed it. However, Mister
Collina-Girard says Plato may have been trying to add interest to his story. Mister Collina -Girard also says Plato
was wrong about the size of Atlantis. Plato wrote that it was bigger than Asia and Libya together. Mister Collina-
Girard says it was much smaller. The scientist says it was only about fourteen kilometers long by five kilometers
wide.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Collina-Girard says an accident led him to find where he believes Atlantis existed. He says he made the
discovery while doing research about another ancient civilization. This caused him to investigate changing sea
levels in the ancient world.
Other scientists say there is only one way to find out if Atlantis was near Spain. They say scientists must explore
the bottom of the ocean. Jacques Collina -Girard plans to dive in the area next summer. Finding objects from a
human society would provide more evidence for his discovery.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Over the centuries, scientists, historians, writers and sailors all have searched for Atlantis in many places. Today,
however, one of the commonly accepted beliefs is that Atlantis was an island called Thira about one-hundredthirteen
kilometers north of Crete in the Aegean Sea.
Some people believe Thira was Atlantis because a volcano destroyed the island about three-thousand-five hundred
years ago. However, Mister Collina-Girard says this idea does not take note of Plato’s writings. Plato
wrote that the gods destroyed Atlantis nine -thousand years before his time. That would mean Atlantis sank about
eleven-thousand years ago.
VOICE ONE:
Some people believe the Azores Islands are the mountain tops of the sunken island of Atlantis. More than one-
hundred years ago, a former United States Congressman, Ignatius Donnelly, said Atlantis probably was in the
Azores Islands. These Atlantic Ocean islands are about one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers west of Portugal.
Mister Donnelly believed this because of studies of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Eighteen-Seventies. The ridge
is one of the Earth’s largest line of underwater mountains. It extends almost ten-thousand kilometers in the
center of the North and South Atlantic Oceans.
American, British and German ships made deep-sea soundings in the ridge. The soundings showed parts of
sunken land near the Azores. Mud raised from the sunken land contained lava material that had flowed from
volcanoes.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Over the years, people have claimed that the lost city of Atlantis existed in other areas around the world. They
include South America, the Middle East, the coast of Western Africa, the Sahara Desert and Iceland. Another
popular theory says the remains of Atlantis are in Antarctica in the most southern part of the world. Many people
believe the city lies under many levels of ice.
This belief developed partly from very old maps. Sailors made one of these maps in Fifteen-Thirteen. A Roman
Catholic clergyman made another map in Sixteen-Sixty-Five. It appeared to have placed Atlantis in the north
Atlantic Ocean. But the clergyman had written “north”
on the bottom of the page. Scientists in more modern
times say both maps showed the same piece of land. Some people say this land was warm enough in ancient
times for people to have lived there.
VOICE ONE:
Many scientists say Atlantis never existed anywhere. But others now accept the possibility of a real Atlantis
because of the science of plate tectonics. Earth scientists say continents are continually moving. They say the
continents float on pieces of the Earth’s outer layer or crust.
New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from below the ocean floor. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down
into the hot area and melts again. In the Nineteen-Fifties, American researchers studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
They used modern equipment to investigate the ocean floor. Their research helped prove that continents move.
VOICE TWO:
For many years, scientists believed continents separated over millions of years. They believed that continents
divided by moving from side to side. Plate tectonics science suggests that land separates from continents as Earth
moves up and down.
It suggests that such separation takes place when volcanoes explode. This results in the creation of islands. Plate
tectonics science also suggests that seas can cover and destroy islands. Scientist Jacques Collina-Girard believes
that is how life may have ended for the people of Atlantis.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This
is Doug Johnson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice
of America.
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