Lost underwater mountain may be linked to Atlantis legend: Study

An underwater mountain with three inactive volcanoes could have inspired the legend of Atlantis, reports the Live Science portal. Spanish scientists have discovered the lost islands that sank deep underwater millions of years ago.

– This could be the beginning of the legend of Atlantis – said Luis Somoza, who is involved in a research project on volcanic activity off the coast of the Canary Islands, in an interview with Live Science. His team found an underwater mountain with three inactive volcanoes. Its diameter reaches 50 kilometres, and its base is about 2.3 kilometres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The discoverers named the mountain Los Atlantes.

The discovery of the mountain, submerged to a depth of several kilometres, was aided by a remotely operated vehicle scientists used to explore the seabed off the eastern coast of Lanzarote, the easternmost Canary Island. The project aimed to understand underwater volcanic and hydrothermal activity in the region.

As has been determined so far, the Los Atlantes mountain was a cluster of islands during the Eocene (a period from 56-34 million years ago). When the volcanoes stopped erupting, the lava began to harden, and over time the islands began to sink into the Atlantic. However, they retained their character, which scientists confirmed in their research. – We identified beaches, cliffs, and dunes on the flat top of the underwater mountain, explained Somoza.

Researchers also point out that some of the identified underwater beaches are just 60 metres below the ocean's surface. Previously, no one either paid attention to them or examined them closely. Such a shallow depth, according to scientists, means that during the last ice age, when sea levels were much lower than today, the sunken mountain could have been home to wildlife.

Although Somoza himself mentions the legend of Atlantis (which holds that a highly developed civilization sank into the ocean in one day and night) first mentioned by Plato around 360 B.C., so far, scientists have not identified any traces of civilization under the ocean near the Canary Islands.

The discovery does partially match the mythical Atlantis, as the once-sunken island could have been inhabited. However, there is no evidence to confirm this thesis with 100-percent certainty.

The team led by Somoza will soon be analyzing samples collected from Los Atlantes. This will likely help determine the age of the volcanic rocks and establish when the islands began to sink. A return to the underwater mountain and volcanoes is planned for next year to examine them more closely.