2002: Spartel Island, Strait of Gibraltar
(National Geographic: January 4, 2002; BBC News: October 30, 2003 )
The expedition is led by French geologist and pre-historian, Jacques Collina - Girard, helped by the leaders of the team that found the Titanic, George Tulloch and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Left picture source: Geological Society
Prof. Collina-Girard claims that Atlantis is to be found in the Strait of Gibraltar and, more likely, was a small mid-channel island. He examined the patterns of human migration from Europe into North Africa 19,000 years ago and built a map to understand the look of the coastlines back then. Oceanography, by studying the records from coral reefs, showed that the sea level was 422 feet (130 meters) lower than today and then the rise in the sea level accelerated to 12 feet (3.7 meters) per century. An island was revealed to have laid before the Pillars of Hercules but it must have sunk 11,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age.
Back then, the sea swallowed six other islands, all at the western end of the Strait and a bit further west. They were framing 'an inland sea', a part of the Atlantic, just like Plato had said. Also, beyond the islands, one could reach the big continent. Today these lands are shoals, and can be located along the coast of Morocco and Spain, at 175 - 410 feet (53 - 123 meters) underwater. However, Prof Collina - Girard is not implying a disaster that has wiped out the island, but he blames the submerged land on the slow rising waters after the ice melted.
Searches were going on about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Tarifa (Spain), and 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Tangier (Morocco). The professor calculated the waters to have raised at a pace of 8 feet (2.4 meters) per century, during Atlantis's last 300 years.
As for the destruction of Atlantis by a volcanic eruption, the area is not volcanic at all and the data don't fit Plato's account. We might overlook the volcanic eruption though, since the Greeks were familiar with them and this part of the Atlantis's story might have been only an embellishment.
Also, the island was supposed to be the size of Libya and Asia combined, but Spartel was only 8.75 miles (14 kilometers) long and 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide. However, Prof. Collina-Girard says that Plato's story simply doesn't square with the geological evidence.
In the fall of 2001, Prof. Collina - Girard published his work in the French journal, Comptes Rendus de l'Academie de Sciences (Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences).
The project spokesman James McCallum said they'd identified an area that could have been the island's harbor. In July 2004, a two-man submersible captained by Paul-Henri Nargeolet will investigate the submerged land. However, as they declared, they won't be searching for temples and majestic underwater structures, as Plato had described Atlantis, but for tools, weapons, or even walls.
