ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE FOR THE ATLANTIS
OF THE EDGAR CAYCE READINGS

Among the results of their study, Bonatti and Chermak identified a strip of sea floor over 300 miles in length along the Romanche fracture zone (FZ) that is anomalously shallow by at least six-tenths of a mile relative to predicted depths. They suggest that the sea-floor high spots are capped by carbonate banks representing stages when they reached close to, and possibly above, sea level. They then estimate that the rate of uplift and sinking of the anomalous crustal blocks was about twice as fast as other crust of equivalent age. The authors note further that at the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) hole 25 (Fig. 2), Eocene age shallow water limestones were recovered. They suggest that the emergent crust “may even have provided ‘land bridges’ for faunal migrations between Africa and South America in early Cenozoic times after the two continents had already been separated.” It is here that they bow to the hypothesis of sea-floor spreading and plate tectonics to explain their findings. That was in 1981. Only ten years later, however, the authors’ sea-floor spreading interpretation was to be disputed.   Russian Evidence Indicates Only Minor Sea-Floor Spreading Ten years later we learn of Russian oceanographers hauling up all kinds of unusual dredge samples from the vicinity of the MAR, or from the slopes of the St. Paul FZ (see Fig. 2).  I won’t describe all of the various rock types recovered except to say that many dredge samples contained continental type rocks and microfossils.4  This led the authors to conclude, as follows. The finds of continental rocks and sediments whose age is older than that determined by paleographic reconstruction in accordance with the ‘canons’ of plate tectonics are an important addition to geophysical data suggesting the ‘non-spreading’ origin of flank plateaus in the equatorial segment of the MAR…..A platform still persists on the downwarped flank plateaus of the MAR because sea-floor spreading was limited entirely to the axial part of its equatorial segment. Implications of Russian Oceanographers’ Conclusions It’s time for scientists to start trying to understand vertical sea-floor changes over time through more than the predominantly horizontal sea-floor spreading/plate tectonics model.  Recall that we have presented a different model to explain what could have been going on along the MAR in our review of Prof. MacKenzie Keith’s article on the plate tectonics theory’s “house of cards.”  Our review is entitled: “New Hypothesis Provides A Basis For The Reality Of The Legendary Continents Of Atlantis And Lemuria --The demise of the current sea-floor spreading and plate-tectonics theory.”  In our review we explain how Keith’s new model contributes to an understanding of the origin and destruction of the Atlantis of Cayce’s readings. Meaning of The Peculiar Composition of St. Peter and St. Paul’s Islets In 1990, Bonatti published a paper on the St. Peter and St. Paul islets that lie on the north side of the St. Paul FZ (Fig. 2).  These islands are peculiar in that they are not volcanic islands, as is to be expected in terrain such as the MAR.  The isles are composed mostly of peridotites and have been interpreted by most investigators as representing sub-oceanic mantle rock.  Bonatti, however, interprets them as being relict sub-continental mantle “which was left behind during the opening of the equatorial Atlantic, and which was then tectonically uplifted to its present position.5 Fine, but I really don’t believe it necessary to do mental handsprings to make everything one observes fit into the plate tectonics mold.  Rather than try to do so, let’s just take Bonatti’s finding, and see if it might not fit in with the readings’ story of the first destruction of Atlantis.  Suppose that the continent was in fact broken up 19,400 years ago by a man-induced, super-massive, volcano-like eruption that caused Atlantis near the Sargasso Sea to “go into the depths.” This was the upheaval that broke up the continent into five large islands and many smaller ones. The upheaval probably even started a pole shift.  Could it not be possible that this event might also have massively affected the equatorial Atlantic sea floor as well?  If so, the uplift of sub-continental, or sub-oceanic mantle would not have been much of an aberration, would it?  And the sinking of any above-sea-level oceanic crust wouldn’t be much of an aberration either.

“[The chart shows] a graphical comparison of solar cycles 2, 10, 13, 17, 20 and 23. Solar cycles 2, 10, 13, 17 and 20 are those that most easily compare to the development of cycle 23, particularly cycles 17 and 20 developed similarly to cycle 23. The chart below displays the development of all those cycles during their 6 first years. “The X axis in the chart is the number of months from the start of a cycle, while the Y axis is the international monthly smoothed sunspot number.”

Alvestad’s chart shows clearly the double peaked nature of this latest solar cycle. It was “paramount” between roughly months 42 and 72 after it began. Solar Cycle 23 began in about February 1996. Yes, the years 2000-2002 did represent the peaking of solar cycle 23, and, presumably, the change between the Piscean and Aquarian ages. Well what about “Atlantis rising” during this period? When scientists take samples of a mantle mountain (the Atlantis Massif) located in or near the Sargasso Sea and bring them to the surface, is that not a sort of rising of physical Atlantis? Too much of a stretch, I say. But then again, who knows what may follow? Are we not close to a paradigm shift in our understanding of Earth history? More On Atlantis Rising A key reading. Consider this fragment of reading 2012-1, given October 29, 1933: Before that we find the entity was in the Atlantean land, when there were the constructive forces as to the activities of the children of the Law of One, - in all of those influences during the periods when the land was being broken up. We find the entity was as the leading influence for the considering of ways and means in which there would be the preserving of records, as well as ways, means and manners in which either the few or the numbers might be preserved from the destruction of the lands. It would be well if this entity were to seek either of the three phases of the ways and means in which those records of the activities of individuals were preserved, - the one in the Atlantean land, that sank, which will rise and is rising again [Hutton’s emphasis added]; another in the place of the records that leadeth from the Sphinx to the hall of records, in the Egyptian land; and another in the Aryan or Yucatan land, where the temple there is overshadowing same. Possible evidence. Is there any evidence that Atlantis was “rising again” in 1933? Was there any portion of the Atlantean continent (Fig.1) that could have been rising then? Perhaps. There is mention of the rising of the ocean floor some 450 miles north of the Azores on the website article, “Survey of Atlantis.” The relevant paragraphs are reproduced below: Christian O'Brien in Chapter 18 of The Shining Ones features the basic historical and geological evidence which identifies the Azores as the site of the Island of Atlantis. In an outstanding career as exploration geologist he is no stranger to successfully challenging established perceptions and raises the key issue of the deep crustal rifting associated with such flood basalt constructions. The technology needed to prove or disprove the Atlantis issue is now available. Science has reached the point of being able to understand both the creation of' such large structures and the subsequent catastrophic movements in the Earths crust, which have destroyed them. Finding and dating the remains of fresh water life at depths of up to 4000 meters, finding coral, sandy beaches and volcanic material below sea level and identifying former river valleys is within reach and we look forward to providing further news on this subject later in the year. So far this century [last century actually, Hutton's correction] there has been a confirmed report of a one mile rise in the floor of the ocean 576 miles north of the Azores when a trans-Atlantic cable broke. [Emphasis added by Hutton]. Dr David F. Zhirov [Prof. N. Zhirov, Hutton's correction] in 1970 reported sand beaches and coral at depths of 2 miles south of the Azores. Confirmed evidence exists that sections of the Mid-Atlantic ridge have been above sea level in the past and [fresh-] water diatoms have been found 2 miles down in the Azores area dated 10,000 to 12,000 BC. Try as I might, I have been unable to confirm this assertion of a one-mile rise in the floor of the ocean some 567 miles north of the Azores. Others may be able to determine the veracity of the statement. Note also that Christian O'Brien produces an interesting map of his concept of the last big island of Atlantis to be submerged. This is called Poseidia in Cayce’s readings, and its final destruction was said (readings 364-1, 288-1, and 339-1) to taken place between 12,700 and 11,900 B.P. (years before the present), or approximately 10,700 to 9,900 B.C. Although I have not studied O’Brien’s data and assumptions behind his map, it brings an exploration geologist’s perspective to the same area that The Hutton Commentaries believes was the last part of Atlantis above the waves before the final destruction; i.e., Poseidia. Seismic evidence. We searched the National Earthquake Information Center’s database for quakes within the area enclosed by the boundaries of Figure 3. This is the Poseidian-Atlantis “target area” that we believe is described in reading 2012-1 at the beginning of this section. This search, from 01/01/1973 through 06/27/2003, turned up 724 earthquakes greater than M 3.0, with focal depths between 5 and 33 km (3.1-20.5 miles) out of a possible depth of 100 km. The three largest earthquakes had magnitudes of M 6.2, one of M 6.3, and one of M 6.6. Over the period, there were three clusters of 8 closely-spaced-in-time quakes, one cluster of 9 (in 2003),one cluster of 13 (in 1997), one cluster of 24 (in 1974), one cluster of 28 (in 2001), and one cluster of 35 (in 1996-1997). For further information on the earthquakes statistics is presented in Table 2.

Direct Evidence of An Emergent Atlantis Here is information on a former emergent continent in the Atlantic Ocean that was summarized by MacKenzie Keith10 for former shallow water or emergent sites sampled by the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). The sampling sites are currently underwater in the region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Locations for three of these sites (Keith, 2001, Table 1) are shown by large red dots on Figure 3, a relief map of the Azores region we have used in previous articles on THC’s website. The red dots are rather large because, while the sampling coordinates that are listed give degrees north latitude, they do not give degrees west longitude. It is understood, however, that the samples were taken in the vicinity of the MAR’s axial valley, clearly visible on Figure 3. Here’s what was found at point A, at a depth of 12,802 ft.: highly vesicular basalt, weathered and oxidized basalt, and a major gap in the basal sedimentary section that indicates subaerial erosion. At site B, at a depth of 12,440 ft, basaltic pebbles and weathered and oxidized basalt were found. And at site C, in 12,313 ft of water, once again basaltic pebbles and weathered and oxidized basalt were found. All of the above findings are strong indicators of a formerly emerged MAR. And they suggest that this volcanic terrain has sunk a minimum of 12,300 ft since being exposed to the atmosphere. Note that Keith’s Table 1 lists six additional MAR sampling sites-to the south of those plotted on our Figure 3 and on down to the equator. Two of these sampling sites show ridge tops flattened by wave erosion, one revealed Tertiary-age shallow water sediment, and another revealed Cretaceous-age shallow water sediment. A final, rather startling finding consists of canyons and a trellis drainage system, quite possibly formed subaerially at a depth greater than 9800 ft. That MAR location is between 26º and 27ºN, to the south of the area covered in Figure 3. The Azores Volcanic Plateau--A Hot Spot at a Triple Junction? The mostly submerged Azores volcanic plateau is the meeting point of three lithospheric plates: the American plate to the west, the Eurasian plate to the northeast, and the African plate to the southeast. The boundary between the American, and the Eurasian and African plates, is the MAR. The boundary between the African and Eurasian plates is controversial. If, as some scientists think, sea floor spreading is occurring in the vicinity of the Azores Plateau, a recent age for the spreading is indicated.11 Other geophysicists think that a hot spot lies beneath the plateau and that the plateau is an expression of a persistent rising plume of hot mantle material. The hot spot itself is perhaps 60 to 120 miles in diameter and the center is usually designated to be at about 38.5º N and 28.0º W, or located roughly at the red dot labeled ‘C’ in Figure 3. Lying southwest of, and perhaps just within, the surface expression of the hotspot is an area of “anomalously shallow depths (locally less than 400 m),” and “two volcanic regions bounded by prominent inward-facing scarps” that appear to be the two flanks of a [small] rifted volcanic plateau.” This location is shown on Figure 3.12Also observed was a prominent ridge segment that is “highly tectonized with hundreds of small faults and fissures disrupting the sea floor…Sediment cover increases to the east, although clusters of small volcanic cones appear through the sediment. The summit of the ridge is characterized by three cones; these surround a depression filled with a lava lake.” Such topography suggests the fingerprint of the massive volcanic upheaval said in reading 364-4 above to have occurred when ….[men on Atlantis] brought in the destructive forces as used for the peoples that were to be the rule, that combined with those natural resources of the gases, of the electrical forces, made in nature and natural form the first of the eruptions that awoke from the depth of the slow cooling Earth, and that portion [of Atlantis] now near what would be termed the Sargasso Sea first went into the depths. Present-day geophysicists say the origin of the sea-floor topography in question was caused by the emplacement of large volumes of magma over old ocean crust (Footnote 12, Abstract T22C). But what, we ask, engendered that unusual supply? Could it not, perhaps, as in reading 877-26 have been generated by ….the turning of the etheric rays’ influence from the Sun – as used by the Sons of the Law of One – into the facet for the activities of same – [that] produced what we would call a volcanic upheaval; and the separating of the land into several islands – five in number ? And what can we infer from those “anomalously shallow depths” mentioned above? Is Atlantis rising there? The geological explanation of the topography is that an excess of 30,000 cubic kilometers of magma were supplied to an otherwise normal mid-Atlantic ridge environment, between 5 and 10 million years ago, due to enhanced supply from “the Azores hotspot that is highly variable in time and space.” The resulting volcanic layer on top of the MAR was in places thicker, and thus relatively close to the ocean surface; and oh yes, the sea floor has not risen there at all “for millions of years.” This scientific inference is hugely at variance with the readings’ explanation, as is the very idea of a formerly above-the-sea continent called Atlantis. Could the geologists’ sea-floor-magnetic-stripe, age-determination procedures, and their hypothesis of exclusively horizontal sea-floor motions (with no appreciable vertical motions) be in error? If not, Atlantis is merely a thought form with no physical reality. Location of the Temple Repository of Records of the Atlantean Civilization If N. Zhirov's Poseidonis (Poseidia of the Cayce readings)13 was at the location shown on Figure 3 before its submergence, when the records of the history of Atlantis were being written, we can further assume that the Atlantean repository for these records will be found in the area shown by shading on Figure 3. This Atlantean records repository will be found in a specific temple "where a portion of the [submerged Atlantean] temples may yet be discovered." In attempting to speculate further on the location of this Atlantean temple, we find the following tantalizing information from p. 363 of Zhirov's book. It seems that in May 1968, Dr. R. Malise, the noted Swedish Atlantologist, wrote the following to Zhirov. The Danish engineer, M. Frandsen, was looking at a depth-chart of the Azores and observed that at a depth of 600-700 fathoms (3600 - 4200 ft) above the surrounding sea-bottom there was an even plateau to the south of the islands. This plateau is sheltered from the north by the present Azores with their summits 4,000-5,000 meters (13,120-16,400 ft) higher than it, and to the west by the main range [the MAR terrain]. To the southwest the plateau is limited by a somewhat lower mountain swell studded with high, flat-topped, now-submarine seamounts. The most prominent of these seamounts have been named by American oceanographers Atlantis, Plato, Cruiser, and Great Meteor. [See Figure 3]. As an experiment, Frandsen made a sketch with the measurements of the Atlantis Plain given by Plato, viz., 400 by 600 kilometers (250 by 375 miles) [Frandsen counted a stadius as 200 meters] and on the same scale as the chart. It fitted very well to the submarine plateau-land of the chart. By studying the depth-curves he found the declination of the plateau to be on an average 1:900; the plateau consisted accordingly of a real plain of a size about 2/3 of present-day Finland. On his sketch he drew in the contours of the mentioned canals and the circular ditch and likewise the squared lots of 'ten stadia each way.' According to Plato, the surrounding ditch had a length of ten thousand stadia (about 2,000 kilometers) and the number of squared lots was 60,000. By measuring the ditch on his sketch, Frandsen found it to be 2,040 kilometers and the number of lots to be 60,700, an acceptable difference. Having worked with irrigation in open and closed canals for thirty years he wanted to control the declination of the water level in the canals if adequate. He found the fall of the water to be 1:300 and1:600, which according to modern principles is acceptable, although barely for the last figure. The current in the canals was accordingly too slow to cause difficulties of navigation for the row-galleys of the time. If this plain housed the last portion of Atlantis to sink beneath the sea, we might expect that it held the major temples as well. This area of the Atlantic seafloor looks like a very interesting one for oceanographers to explore. Multi-beam bathymetry surveys should be able to pick up signatures of canals without too much trouble.

CONCLUSION The famous marine geologist, Francis P. Shepard, once wrote something to this effect. "If we could look down from the Moon at the Earth without her oceans, the most prominent relief features that one could see would be the steep continental slopes. They look suspiciously like giant fault scarps." A variation to scientist Shepard’s observation might read, "The steep continental slopes look like giant fault scarps surrounding a sunken region of Earth's crust, a region called, in some foolish quarters, Atlantis." Seriously though, it does seem that evidence for the existence of the Atlantis of the Cayce readings grows stronger every year. A few critics want to remind us that Atlantis did not visibly rise above the surface of the ocean, “as prophesied in reading 1602-3.” But the reading says only that In 1998 we may find a great deal of the activities as have been wrought by the gradual changes that are coming about. ...This is a gradual, not a cataclysmic activity in the experience of the Earth in this period. “This period” is linked in 1602-3 to the current, double-peaked solar cycle (number 23) that became “paramount” in 2000-2002. Cycle 23 is now in decline. Atlantis did not rise above the waves in 2000-2002, but consider that any evidence of a gradually rising Atlantis could easily still be concealed beneath the ocean’s waters. To the foregoing I would add that geological processes like the elevation or sinking of large tracts of Earth’s crust occur slowly in “human time.” Thus, the slow pace of Earth changes that occur in geologic time must temper the expectations of people used to thinking in terms of human time. An exception to this consideration is found, however, in accelerated Earth changes that would be caused by a sudden shift in Earth’s poles of rotation. Without such a pole shift, predicted in 3976-15 to occur any day now, the predicted rising of parts of Atlantis will forever be judged to have been only a figment of the imagination for those of us living today.

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1. William Hutton’s efforts in 1965-1968 to sample and analyze Bimini rocks by drilling, and by examining rock fragments from a deep sand-dredging operation at the Bimini inlet, are reviewed in his book, “Coming Earth Changes” (A.R.E. Press, 1996, pp. 165-180).  Partial costs for that research were funded by the Edgar Cayce Foundation (ECF).  Results of a 2002 study of rocks dredged from the Bimini lagoon can be found in the article entitled, "Bimini Revisited". That study was self-funded by William Hutton and Jonathan Eagle.

   An attempt to sample rocks and projections from the submerged cliff off Bimini was made in 1998-2000, under ARE sponsorship, but the results of that effort indicated nothing but carbonate rock had been sampled (J. Hanley, personal communication, 5/2003).  <back>
    

2. The secretary, Gladys Davis, noted in Report of Reading 364-3, item 2: “In 364-3 re Par. 5 reference to Ram entering India it might be pertinent to study East Indian lore. In 1910 a book entitled RAMA AND MOSES, The Aryan Cycle and The Mission of Israel, by Edouard Schure', Translated by F. Rothwell, B.A., was published by Wm. Rider & Son, Ltd., London, England. On page 27 a young priest named Ram is mentioned. Some of the chapter headings are: The Human Races and the Origins of Religion, The Mission of Rama, The Vedic Religion, etc.”  <back>
    

3. Turkey in Europe is bounded on the north by Bulgaria, on the east by the Black Sea, and the Bosporus, on the south by the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelle’s, and on the west by the Aegean Sea and Greece.  <back>
    

4. Udintsev, G. B., and Others, 1990, “Finds of continental rocks and sediments of anomalous age in the equatorial segment of the mid-Atlantic ridge,” Doklady Akademii Nauk, v. 312, no. 2, pp. 450-454.  <back>
    

5. Bonatti, E., 1990, “Subcontinental mantle exposed in the Atlantic Ocean on St. Peter-Paul islets,” Nature, v. 345, pp. 800-802.  While Bonatti concluded that the midocean ridge is underlain by material left behind as the continents were rifted apart, there is a serious flaw in his argument.  As explained by by A. Meyerhoff and H. Meyerhoff (1974, "Ocean magnetic anomalies and  their relations to continents," in Kahle, C., plate tectonics--Assessments  and  reassessments, Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geol., Tulsa, OK p. 415), "If the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is underlain by continental-type mantle, how are the allegedly young magnetic anomalies formed at the crests of the midocean ridges with attendant seafloor spreading?  Bonatti fails to explain this.  It is difficult to conceive of a mobile crustal layer at the surface of the midocean ridge underlain by what Bonatti terms a "stagnant" mantle.  By his own admission, the newly formed basalt has to pass through the "stagnant" continental mantle." [Meyerhoff and Meyerhoff were citing Bonatti’s 1971 paper in the Jour. Geophys. Research, v. 76, no.17, p. 3825-383, entitled “Ancient continental mantle beneath oceanic ridges.”]. Bonatti ignored the Meyerhoff criticisms in his 1990 Nature paper.  <back>
    

6. Bonatti, E., and Others, 1994, “Transform migration and vertical tectonics at the Romanche fracture zone, equatorial Atlantic,” Jour. Geophys. Research, v. 99, pp. 21,779-21,802.  <back>
    

7. Jardetzky, W., 1962, Jour. Geophys. Research, v. 67, no. 11, pp. 4461-4472. <back>

8. Duggen, S. and Others, 2003, “Deep roots of the Messinian salinity crisis,” Nature, v. 422, pp. 602-606. <back>  

9. A massif (mas-sif') is a massive topographic and structural feature, especially in a mountain belt, commonly formed of rocks more rigid than those of its surroundings. These rocks may be protruding bodies of basement rocks, consolidated during earlier mountain building periods, or younger rocks of deeper origin. <back>  

10. Keith, M., 2001, "Evidence for a Plate Tectonics Debate," Earth-Science Reviews, 55 pp. 235-336. <back>

11. Lourenco, N., and Others, 1998, “Morpho-tectonic analysis of the Azores Volcanic plateau from a new bathymetric compilation of the area,” Marine Geophysical Researches v. 20, pp. 141-156, plus map. <back>

12. Information in this paragraph comes from three abstracts in the Proceedings Volume for the December 1998 meeting of the American Geophysical Union (Abstracts T72F-07, T22C, and T12C-11). These abstracts describe the results of detailed sea-floor mapping programs southwest of the Azores hot spot, closer to the central Sargasso Sea. The studies cover an area where the normal V-shaped median valley of the MAR is interrupted by a messed-up area of the sea floor. <back>

13. Zhirov, N., 1970, “Atlantis,” Progress Publishers, Moscow. <back>