GeologyRocks

I've heard of this theory.

It was used to explain the whereabouts of the lost city of Atlantis. (that's if you believe in Atlantis )

Many people believe that Atlantis is some where in Antarctica and Earth Crust Displacement is the only way of explaining how it could be there as this location doesn't 'fit' using conventional plate tectonics.

~Jenny~

This theory now has a modern name - true polar wander. It has been "shown" to occur in Cambrian times (I forget the paper, but I can look it up if you really want ). However, the paper analysisng this states that the movment speeds up "conventional" plate tectonics to 20+cm per year, not wholesale rapid movements. The problem is that the mantle-crust system is complex, with mountain ranges having roots. These would act as "brakes", stopping any large movement.

There was a poster here (before we switched servers and lost everything) called Andre. He was into "True Polar Wander". Have a look around sciforums.com and scienceforums.net and there may be something there. Just don't believe EVERYTHING he "states"

Jon

Thanks Jon,

I'll have a look asap, I might need to have my thinking cap on though!

I found this link to be most interesting...

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~devans/iitpw/science.html

Yep, that's the paper I was referring to in my last post. It is an interesting hypothesis, but the data does not seem to fully back it up as yet, although the data in the Cambrian can hardly be discribed as "complete", so who knows what may happen in this area.

Cheers,

Jon

The Atlantis theory is 'interesting' but surely if this civilisation existed then this sudden 'crustal shift' must have happened in the last million years or so...?! And I myself haven't seen any evidence for this. Some guy claimed to have found Atlantis off Cyprus last year, however, closer examination of the seismic images he showed as proof seems to show slumping rather than anything else. A load of s**t, pardon my french...

http://www.discoveryofatlantis.com/book.htm

The other thing to remember is how the poles are defined. If we are taking poles to mean magnetic poles, then they have indeed reversed (without crustal movements) several times, but have always returned to approximately the same position... If we are taking the geographical pole to mean pole. then this proposal of crustal shifting may not have made any difference - the only way to move these poles would be to physically change the way the earth is aligned in the solar system via a large scale impact - have a look at Uranus (i think) which instead of having poles at ~90 degrees to the elongate axis of the solar system as the rest of the planets do, has poles approximately aligned with the elongate axis.

It would be easier to explain this with a digram I think...

Simon

Why do so many people want to find Atlantis?
Even if they do find it it, it will be all wet and soggy!

John

ahh, but if someone found it, they could say. i found the now NOT lost city of Atlatis. plus there was supost to be a large amount of knowledge with the city.

hum.....

I think it'd be really cool to find Atlantis (but I have got a 'thing' about ancient civilisations )

There's quite a bit of evidence to support it's existence too..

Did you know that similar advanced farming techniques suddenly appeared in both Africa and South America in about 10500 BC (about the time Atlantis supposedly 'disappeared')

~Jenny~

I think Atlantis is a mythical place based one or more distant or lost civilisations that existed before the Sumarians, and before writing was invented. There are many places in the world where an early city or civilisation could have been formed and then wiped out by a catastrophic event. Somehow a memory of it survived.

I was just reading up on the Salinity Crisis, which involved the drying up of and Catastrophic flooding of the area of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has long been a centre for many early advanced cultures, such as the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. I have read in some sources that the medi was dried up for about 400,000 years, and then reflooded about 1.9 Million years ago. Homo erectus was around then, and they were the first hunter gatherers. They migrated through the world and it's plausible that they were in the mediterreanen region - evidence has been found that they inhabited Israel and the red sea area anyway, and later the coast of France. Who knows?

Sorry to disappoint you all, but Atlantis was discovered several decades ago. It actually lies at a point on the Earth's crust where about 750 ley lines converge, the energy from which have shrunk it considerably. The 4 acre site was extensively excavated by a Prof R Mcdonald in 1952 and several interesting items were found, including an early example of clogs and a tin bath. The site has been subsequently reburied under a slag heap approximately three miles SE of Barnsley town centre. At least that's what a bloke in the Flying Horseshoe at Rotherham told me.

Gus

That bloke in t'Horseshoe has had too many pints of Prescott's Olde Knee Trembler if you ask me - confused Barnsley with Bosnia!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12402157/

Easy mistake to make

... and before anyone starts believing it ...

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/osmanagic/

when you look at the 'mountain growing at mount St Helens and the shape and size.. does it not make anyone wonder if the same thing at one point was not what has happened in the Bosnian article.. * shakes head disapointedly* pyramids.. honestly.. its far too cold for Egyptian pharos up there!!