The Legend of Atlantis and The Science of Geology

The first of a new series that comprises a serious, scientific, and open-minded treatment of Plato's Atlantis legend. Contrary to the usual approach, the geologist author treats the legend in a balanced way, without preconceptions or the dismissals that so typify the usual academic attitude to the question. In parallel with this treatment of Atlantis, the author takes a critical approach to the science of geology, and its theories. Therefore, this book series endeavors to redress the imbalance in the way these two subjects have been officially treated. A thorough study of the Atlantis question should determine its validity, while a critical analysis of the science of geology should do the same for the so-called story of our planet. This first volume focuses on the Atlantis legend itself and analyzes it first from the geological point of view, and then from the mythological, including classical and modern scholarly opinion, language, structure, and what is known about Plato and his times.

"Atlantis and Catastrophe, Myth or Reality" is the first volume in a new series about the mystery of Atlantis. The strictly scientific nature of this series is revealed by its title: "The Legend of Atlantis and the Science of Geology." While many are the books that have been written about Atlantis, this volume, and series, differs from most in that the geologist author here presents a serious scientific treatment of the legend. The academic establishment, governed as it is by gradualist uniformitarian geology, takes a dismissive view of Atlantis and all such catastrophe legends. In this series, and very much breaking with convention, this author takes an open-minded approach to the Atlantis question, and, for balance, a critical approach to the science of geology. There is a very simple either/or question to be answered by this series: if modern geology has everything right, then the Atlantis legend is a myth with no basis in reality. On the other hand, if the Atlantis legend can be shown to have validity, then this raises questions about the validity of the theories of orthodox geology¾and vice versa. The science of geology has had quite a varied history, and, as many people know, there was a time when notions of Atlantis, and catastrophes in general, were taken a good deal more seriously than they are today. A thorough study of the Atlantis legend itself should give a sense of its validity, or otherwise, while a critical analysis of geology should do the same for the so-called story of our planet. Catastrophe and flood legends are prevalent the world over, and a general global survey of such legends is included. Further, in this study, a sampling of legends from the Pacific Northwest of the United States are discussed and analyzed through the new discipline of geomythology. Because catastrophist geology has long since been rejected, there is no room in academia today for legends such as Atlantis and its catastrophic end. This series of books will show, however, that the natural history of this earth is quite possibly very different to what modern geologists claim it to be, and the fabled island of Atlantis may indeed be lying now at the bottom of the Atlantic, right where Plato said it was.

The author graduated from University College Cork, Ireland, in 1986 with a Batchelor's degree in geology and began his career as a professional geologist working on water resources and environmental geology in both Ireland and the United States. Finding that the work of a geologist did not really appeal to him, he left the field and pursued his keen interest in the science of geology independently. His interest in the earth sciences was matched only by his interest in ancient archaeology, and the meeting of the two.

Driven by a primary interest in the enigma of the Ice Age, the author embarked on a quest to solve what is probably the greatest mystery in geology, undeterred by the many decades of prior and futile efforts that had preceded his. Growing up near formerly glaciated landscapes in Ireland, and living among them in the Northeastern U.S., he became very familiar with the evidence the Ice Age supposedly left behind.

Careful observation, an eye for detail, and an open mind enabled the author to achieve insights previously missed or obscured by an excessive adherence to gradualistic academic doctrine. Having found the need to question everything he’d learnt at university, his review of the geological sciences extended back to the early years of the science, to a time when catastrophism was the dominant view of earth history. 

Apart from an effort to solve the Atlantis mystery, therefore, the major scientific question the author attempts to answer is whether modern-day gradualist uniformitarianism is correct or whether some form of the rejected catastrophism of the early days holds the better answer. And, after thirty years of study, the author considers the latter to be the more correct.

The author's approach to his analysis of the Atlantis legend and the science of geology is based solely on the evidence and underpinned by the laws of physics, and, using much scientific evidence and those same laws of physics, this series seeks to demonstrate that the geological history of this world may well be very different to what orthodox academic geology says it is, and lost Atlantis may indeed be very much a reality.