Atlantis Beneath the Ice

by Rand Flem-Ath

  The clamor and excitement were to be expected at the port of a capital as renowned as Atlantis. Here the distribution of the goods to sustain a vast empire kept this vital section of the city a scene of constant activity. Providing the lifeblood of the empire, the prospering merchants’ quarter enveloped three-fourths of the outer city. Trade and barter hummed constantly as foreign fleets crowded the massive docks dominating the port.

  These docks were an integral part of a fortress equal to any ever conceived. Built in defense of the Atlanteans’ precious material and spiritual treasures, they were carved from the white, black, and red rock of the land itself. A masterpiece of ingenuity, their pattern was continued in the substance of the towers and gates guarding the entrance. The business conducted in this extensive, noisy section of the city was responsible in no small part for the prosperity and leisure enjoyed by all Atlanteans.

  Noise from the market receded as the fleet entered the confines of the canal. Incoming ships were dwarfed by the cliffs that towered on either side of the canal, an intimidating welcome indeed to any foreigner. The ship and her anxious crew were now on their way to their final destination, the inner sanctum of the great capital itself. But in order to reach their haven, ships must travel a slow route through a farther complex series of canals [see figure 12.1].

  The young sailor’s impatience to reach the city’s legendary center was tempered by the comfort of being once again within the embrace of his home. His ancestors had constructed a capital befitting their reputation. The city of Atlantis was an incredible example of city planning on a scale that the twentieth century has yet to match. They were experts at manipulating the most abundant and obvious of power sources—water—to serve their most important needs. All the city’s commercial and transportation needs were met by an intricate system of canals that reached beyond the city into the great plain and farther up to the source of the bountiful waters, the mountains. Ironically, the forces of water were to write their epitaph.

  Figure 12.1. The city of Atlantis consisted of rings of land that were, in turn, ringed by water. The inner city housed royalty and included gardens, racing tracks, palaces, and a temple. The outer city was populated by merchants and traders.

  THE MARVELOUS CITY

  But that epitaph was still in the unknown future at the time that this unnamed sailor came home. And the city he returned to had no rival in the ancient world. Neither Rome nor Alexandria nor Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, could outshine Atlantis for sheer size and beauty. In diameter alone, the city covered twenty-three kilometers. A massive carved wall crowned with dwellings traced a seventy-two-kilometer girth around the city. Most of London’s famous sites would fit comfortably within the dimensions of the inner section of the city of Atlantis (see figure 12.2). And unlike the haphazard core of the United Kingdom’s capital, Atlantis was a masterpiece of planning.

  Figure 12.2. The capital city of Atlantis was as large as modernday greater London.

  The towers and gates of outer Atlantis would have seemed fairly easy obstacles compared with what lay before any invader intent on unveiling the mysteries of the inner city. Whether enemy or friend, no one could fail to be impressed as he or she sailed across the stretch of water half a kilometer wide that separated the inner city from the merchants’ quarter. This expanse led to a shining wall of brass that concealed the only entrance to the inner city.

  Once granted admittance, the full spectrum of the great civilization could be glimpsed. The first ring of land contained a racing stadium, gymnastic areas, and gardens blooming with exotic flowers, plants, and trees from around the world. Beyond this leisure area the pattern of water and land was repeated. The next belt of land was elevated and surrounded by a wall of tin. It protected the palaces, gardens, and fountains of the lesser noblemen of Atlantis.

  And then, as if the Atlanteans had deliberately tempted any unwary traveler with the promise of ever more wonderful sights, the last belt of water, girdled by still higher land, came into view. This area was also surrounded by a wall, this time covered in orichalcum, a metal unique to Atlantis that was said to sparkle like fire. It was from this central island, the pinnacle of the pyramid city of shining walls, that the Atlantean Empire was ruled.

  On the central island the Grove of Poseidon surrounded the temple. Hot and cold water flowed through the gardens, providing cooling pools in the summer and warm baths in the winter. The temple and palace were protected by a gold-encrusted wall, and the temple itself was coated with silver. Its interior was graced by statues, including a gigantic depiction of the god of the sea, standing on a chariot, its reins connected to six winged steeds. One hundred sea nymphs astride dolphins accompanied the sea god across the ocean.

  At the altar of the temple of the sea god were enshrined the laws governing the ten princes of the ten provinces of Atlantis. They were engraved on a pillar of orichalcum, and the king and princes gathered “alternatively every fifth and sixth year (thereby showing equal respect to both odd and even numbers), consulted on matters of mutual interest and inquired into and gave judgement on any wrong committed by any of them.”2

  These intense deliberations were followed by elaborate rituals meant to reinforce the rulers’ mutual commitment to the laws of Atlantis. “When darkness fell and the sacrificial fire had died down they all put on the most splendid dark blue ceremonial robes and sat on the ground by the embers of the sacrificial fire, in the dark, all glimmer of fire in the sanctuary being extinguished. And thus they gave and submitted to judgement on any complaints of wrong made against them; and afterwards, when it was light, wrote the terms of the judgement on gold plates which they dedicated together with their robes as records.”3

  The Atlanteans lived in peace and prosperity, enjoying and exploiting their empire, and “their wealth was greater than that possessed by any previous dynasty of kings or likely to be accumulated by any later.”4

  In his dialogue Critias, Plato repeats the words of the Egyptian priest who spoke to Solon about the lost city of Atlantis. The priest offered five physical clues to the location of the city:

  On a large plain

  Near the ocean

  Midway along the continent’s greatest length

  Toward the islands

  Surrounded by mountains.

  Using these five clues and the climatic facts deduced from the theory of earth crust displacement, we can narrow the search for the city. The maps in figure 12.3 depict the area of Antarctica that lay outside the Antarctic Circle when Atlantis thrived. More than half of the island continent was under ice at that time. The city would not be found here. Thus the search can be restricted to Lesser Antarctica.

  Plato tells us that the city was near the ocean, along the continent’s greatest length, and opposite the islands of Atlantis. It was completely surrounded by mountains and sat on a large plain on a small hill. The Antarctic mountain range runs along the coast on the same side as the small islands. Therefore, in figure 12.3, the plain on which the great city probably stood is shown in black.a

  Figure 12.3. The plain on which the capital city of Atlantis stood will be found in a relatively small area of Antarctica once we view the continent without its ice. Charles Hapgood’s theory of earth crust displacement points to Lesser Antarctica because there was ice on Greater Antarctica during the reign of Atlantis (a). The Egyptian priest tells us that the city of Atlantis was at the midpoint of the main island toward other islands (b). The city was surrounded by mountains (c). The black area is the probable location of the city of Atlantis (d).6

  Such were the physical attributes of Atlantis according to the learned Egyptian priest. But its culture and civilization remain an intriguing mystery. Though a few tantalizing details are revealed by Plato, it remains the task of modern archaeology to excavate life from the cold grave of the lost city. It is to the icy, dark waters of Antarctica that we look to find answers about the very roots of civilization itself, answers that may yet be preserved in t
he frozen depths of the forgotten island continent of Antarctica.

  THIRTEEN

  WHY THE SKY FELL

  What was the force that propelled the earth’s crust to displace? How often has it happened? How long did it take to happen? Will it happen again, and if so when? Did the axis change? Why did the sky fall? These are the questions that haunted both Charles Hapgood and Albert Einsteina from November 1952, when they began their correspondence, until April 1955, when Einstein died.

  Earth crust displacement is not the first geological theory formulated without addressing the mechanism that initiated it. As noted in chapter 9, when Louis Agassiz introduced the notion of ice ages, he was met with extreme skepticism. Agassiz’s ice ages were catastrophic events that struck the planet out of the blue. Like his mentor, Georges Cuvier, Agassiz formulated his theory in an attempt to explain the sudden demise of animals in Siberia.2 But Agassiz had no explanation for what caused the ice ages.

  The geological establishment, lead by Charles Lyell, saw the importance of Agassiz’s theory. It offered an explanation for several long-standing problems such as the existence of large boulders in seemingly odd locations. But Lyell would have nothing to do with the notion of a cataclysm and so toned down Agassiz’s theory. As the result of Lyell’s influence in geology the term ice age and the related term glacial have became synonymous with “ponderously slow change.” Agassiz’s theory has been successfully tamed to fit the fixation that all geological change is gradual.

  Even without a mechanism to explain it, the ice age theory took its place as one of the underlying assumptions of modern geology. The quest for a mechanism to explain the cause or causes for ice ages has been going on for more than a century and a half—without success. Eventually nongeologists got into the quest for a mechanism that could explain the ice ages.

  ICE AGES—THE SEARCH FOR A CAUSE

  In 1842, the first astronomical clue was discovered by a mathematician working as a tutor in Paris. Joseph Alphonse Adhemar (1797–1862) knew that the earth passes through four cardinal points (the spring equinox, the summer solstice, the fall equinox, and the winter solstice) during its orbit around the sun. One season changes to another as the earth crosses these points.

  The cardinal points gradually shift over a grand, twenty-two-thousand-year cycle due to the gravitational pull of the sun, moon, and planets on the earth. Adhemar knew that the earth is closest to the sun on January 3 and farthest away on July 4. At the present point in the orbit’s grand cycle, those in the Northern Hemisphere are nearest to the warmth of the sun, resulting in relatively mild winters. But eventually, in thousands of years, the earth will be drawn closer to the sun around the time of the summer solstice, precipitating sweltering summers and frigid winters. Adhemar believed that this gradual shifting of the cardinal points, which scientists today call the precession of the equinoxes, instigated the ice ages by depriving the earth of the sun’s genial influence at critical times.

  In 1843, another French scientist, Urbain Leverrier (1811–1877), detected a second astronomical feature related to the ice ages. He realized that the distance from the sun at which the earth traveled was affected by the actual shape of the earth’s orbit. Over a one-hundredthousand-year cycle, the orbit’s shape is gradually altered, again by the gravitational influences of the sun, moon, and other planets. It ranges from a near-perfect circle, as it is today, to a more oval orbit in which our world is carried farther from the sun, allowing the ice ages to gain a grip on the vulnerable earth.

  Despite these breakthroughs in astronomy, there was still no agreement about the cause or timing of the ice ages. An unlikely source provided the third and final clue. Scotsman James Croll (1821–1890) was forced to drop out of school at the age of thirteen to help his mother raise their family. But although his formal classes had ended, he undertook an ambitious self-education program during which he mastered the fundamentals of the physical sciences. In 1859, after holding numerous jobs, from millwright to insurance salesman, he finally arrived at the position from which he made his monumental contribution to science: Croll became the janitor in the Andersonian College and Museum in Glasgow. He wrote, “My salary was small, it is true, little more than sufficient to enable me to subsist; but this was compensated by advantages for me of another kind.”3

  The janitor had access to the college’s science library. It was all he needed. The untutored Croll decided to turn his talents to the puzzle that still eluded the scientific establishment: What had actually caused the ice ages? With the publication of his book Climate and Time in 1872, Croll introduced the third astronomical key to the mystery: change in the earth’s axis.

  The angle of the earth’s tilt determines the amount of sunshine received by various parts of the planet. Changes in the tilt result in temperature changes on the earth’s surface. Today the axis is angled at 23.5°. But the tilt gradually changes, varying from a minimum of 21.8° to a maximum of 24.4°.

  Milutin Milankovitch (1857–1927), a Serbian engineer who in 1911 was working as a professor of mathematics at the University of Belgrade, used these astronomical factors to calculate the amount of solar radiation that would reach the earth at any particular time in its history. He believed that ice ages resulted when winter ice did not melt the following summer because the earth was not receiving enough warmth from the sun. Over successive seasons the ice sheets would thicken, slowly smothering the land beneath.

  In 1976, Croll and Milankovitch’s ideas were validated by James Hay, John Imbrie, and Nicholas Shackleton, who published a paper showing that the geological evidence of the ice ages matched the astronomical cycles (see chapter 10). They showed that normally the earth is gripped by an ice age. But we now enjoy an interglacial period—that is, a very mild climate compared with what the planet normally endures.

  Our present interglacial period, which began almost twelve thousand years ago, is destined to be only a short-lived melting period. During the last 350,000 years there have been four interglacial periods occurring roughly 335,000, 220,000, 127,000, and 11,600 years ago. Three astronomical cycles must coincide to bring about an interglacial period: the planet’s tilt must reach approximately 24.4°, the orbit’s shape must be elongated by at least 1 percent, and the earth must be closest to the sun in the month of June.

  The Croll/Milankovitch astronomical theory of the ice ages is today gathering widespread support as an explanation for the timing of large-scale glacials. But it addresses only part of the question. Of equal importance is the geography of glaciations. It is here that the long-neglected theory of earth crust displacement plays its role in unraveling the mystery.4 According to Hapgood’s theory, the areas of the globe that experience the coolest climates are those that are thrust into the polar zones.

  In his foreword to Hapgood’s book Einstein explains the mechanism that might dislocate the crust. “In a polar region there is continual disposition of ice which is not symmetrically distributed about the pole. The earth’s rotation acts on these unsymmetrical deposited masses, and produces centrifugal momentum that is transmitted to this rigid crust of the earth. The constantly increasing centrifugal momentum produced this way will, when it reaches a certain point, produce a movement of the earth’s crust over the rest of the earth’s body, and this will displace the polar regions toward the equator.”5 And such a movement will, simultaneously, shift some temperate areas into the polar zones, freezing them until they are freed by another earth crust displacement.

  Einstein, although convinced that displacements had occurred, doubted that the weight of the ice caps alone would produce sufficient force to dislodge the crust. Hapgood gave up searching for the cause of the displacements and concentrated on demonstrating how his theory could explain unsolved problems in geology and evolution.

  The Croll/Milankovitch theory of ice ages suggests the combined extraterrestrial gravitational pull of the planets, sun, and moon and the terrestrial influence of the weight of the ice caps as a cause of the crustal displ
acements. We suggest that if the shape of the earth’s orbit deviates from a perfect circle by more than 1 percent, the gravitational influence of the sun increases because the earth’s path narrows at certain points. The sun exercises more pull on the planet and its massive ice sheets. The ponderous weight alternately pushes and pulls against the crust, and this immense pressure, combined with the greater incline in the earth’s tilt and the sun’s increased gravitational pull, forces the crust to shift.

  After each displacement the ice sheets melt, raising the ocean level. This melting is compounded if the displacement coincides with the beginning of an interglacial period when worldwide temperatures climb. Such was the case 11,600 years ago following the last earth crust displacement. Eventually, as snowfall again accumulates within the repositioned Arctic and Antarctic circles, the ocean returns to a lower level and the cycle begins all over again.

  The last earth crust displacement occurred 11,600 years ago when all three astronomical cycles meshed, ushering in the present interglacial epoch. The dominant cycle relating to these events is that of the earth’s tilt (now thought to move from the minimum of 21.8° to the maximum of 24.4° every 41,000 years).6 We believe other earth crust displacements occurred during the last glacial epochs at 11,600, 52,600, and 93,600 years ago.

  Such a theory, coupled with Hapgood’s geomagnetic evidence for the location of the poles, accounts for the unique geography of glaciations. Those areas, trapped within the polar zones both before and after the displacements, accumulate unusually large amounts of glaciations.

  Hapgood’s theory is simple, coherent, and fruitful. These are all features that Thomas Kuhn recognizes as being characteristics of what he termed a paradigm shift. The problem of the ice ages is transformed once we use Hapgood’s theory. The explanation is simple. Those parts of the earth’s crust that shift into the polar zones experience ice ages. Today there is an ice age in Siberia, Greenland, and Antarctica.b