“THERE occurred violent earthquakes and floods…the island of Atlantis disappeared in the depths of the sea.” That was how Greek philosopher Plato described the destruction of the legendary city. Now new evidence suggests that he was writing about a devastating tsunami.
In 2001, some geologists suggested that Spartel, an underwater island in the Strait of Gibraltar close to the region mentioned by Plato, might have been the site of Atlantis. A rising sea could have slowly submerged the island (New Scientist, 22 September 2001, p 17).
But this does not match Plato’s accounts of what happened 12,000 years ago,…
