TGIF: Another Atlantis

Let’s make Friday a special occaision here at Deep Sea News. Last Friday we posted a geeky fish video and an online video game, along with the usual photo. Folks were so thankful for the entertainment that our gross national product probably dropped by one millionth of one percent. We should make it a tradition, out of respect for our European friends, if not ourselves.

Whatever happened to Fridays back in the American 70’s, you know, with wall posters of kitty cats hanging from a limb saying “Hang On, Baby Friday’s Coming” rather than foggy mountain vista’s saying “Inspire. Achieve”? Puhhlease. That ain’t Friday. “Get down, get down. Get down, get down…”

This week’s TGIF video comes from Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura who says he has identified the ruins of a city off the coast of Yonaguni Island on the southwestern tip of Japan. The link is here. If you dive, you’ll love it. If you don’t, you’ll wish you did.

Be interested to hear from some geologists and archeologists on this one.
Here’s some excerpts from the article.

“Judging by the design and the disposition of the ruins, the city must have looked just like an ancient Roman city,” said Kimura, a professor at Ryukyu University and the chairman of the non-profit Marine Science and Culture Heritage Research Association.

“I can envisage a triumphal arch-like statue stood on the left side of the Colosseum and a shrine over the hill,” he told Reuters Television.

5 Replies to “TGIF: Another Atlantis”

  1. Well the horizontal surfaces look like depositional fabrics or flow banding (the surfaces are parallel to structures in the underlying rock) in volcanic or volcaniclastic rocks. The vertical surfaces are probably sets of joints caused by stress related to cooling or tectonics.

    One really wouldn’t expect sharp right angles to be preserved on “monuments” as they subside through the surf zone. If, however, there are perpendicular surfaces pervading the rocks they will be exposed by the erosive action of large storm waves, tsunamis, etc.

    As tall tales go this one is really quite boring. I can take you to a place in northern Baja California where photon torpedos from Klingon battle cruisers melted granites to leave elongate eliptical inclusions. There’s also a place in the Sierras where the devil made a postpile out of basalt.

  2. If this is true, really fascinating. But if I recall, there has been no archaeological support for this. This site is right off a cliff, so I wonder if there has been any digging on the top of the cliff for evidence?

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