Conspiracy theorists claim that photos taken by NASA's Operation IceBridge mission show what could possibly be proof of an ancient human settlement frozen beneath layers of ice in Antarctica. Could this be Atlantis?
Antarctica: Home Of The Lost City Of Atlantis?
The legend goes that the city of Atlantis sank underwater. Theories abound where the civilization drowned and one of these proposes that the lost city now lies frozen beneath what is now Antarctica.
Proponents of the idea that the city of Atlantis lies beneath the cold and thick ice of Antarctica offer several justifications to support their claim. One of these involve the theory that the continent used to be ice-free and may even be the home of an ancient civilization.
Crustal Displacement
The theory known as crustal displacement claims that the crust movement of our planet means that large areas of Antarctica used to be ice-free about 12,000 years ago. Without ice, it is possible that people once lived there.
An ancient society may have existed there and may have ended with the last Ice Age that left the continent frozen in ice. That ancient civilization, proponents claim, could have been Atlantis, which according to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato was founded by demigods who are half-god and half-human.
Unfortunately, the theory of crustal displacement is a pseudoscience, which means that it has not been proven by scientific studies.
The Piri Reis Map
An ancient map made by Turkish admiral Piri Reis in 1513 appears to support the idea of Antarctica's secret city. The map, which was discovered in 1929, appears to show the Antarctic coast hundreds of years before the discovery of the Antarctic continent in 1820. It also appears to depict Antarctica before it was covered in ice but the map was denounced by many scholars.
NASA's Operation IceBridge Mission
NASA's Operation IceBridge mission is the largest airborne survey of polar ice. It aims to produce a three-dimensional view of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, sea ice and ice shelves and provide an annual look at the behavior of the changing features of ice in Greenland and the Antarctic.
Conspiracy theorists claim that photos taken by the mission hint of an ancient human settlement beneath layers of ice. The veracity of the idea, however, is contested.
Atlantis May Never Have Existed At All
The idea that Antarctica is home of the legendary Atlantis has weak contentions but Atlantis may not even have existed at all. Few scientists think it was real so why are people fascinated with the lost city of Atlantis? James Romm, from Bard College in Annandale, New York, has provided an explanation.
"It's a story that captures the imagination," Romm said. "It's a great myth. It has a lot of elements that people love to fantasize about."
