Donnelly's Atlantis on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

In 1882 the American congressman Ignatius Donnelly published 'Atlantis: The Antediluvian World', arguing that Atlantis was a real continent in the mid-Atlantic, with the Azores as its last peaks, and the source of all civilisation.

1882 CE · 38.50, -32.00 · status: claim

The account

He used the newly charted Mid-Atlantic Ridge as evidence. The book was a best-seller and founded modern Atlantis writing.

The sceptical view

Plate tectonics shows that the ridge is where new seafloor forms; it was never a sunken continent.

Connections in the atlas

• Spartel Bank as Atlantis
• The Azores 'pyramid'
• Plato places Atlantis beyond the Pillars of Hercules

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Atlantis: The Antediluvian World