Publisher's Synopsis
"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 author is a qualified geologist, and 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. 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 geology---and 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.This book series, therefore, seeks to redress the inequality in the way Atlantis and geology have been officially treated. A thorough study of the Atlantis legend itself should give a sense of its reliability, or otherwise, while a critical analysis of geology should do the same for the so-called story of our planet.This first volume focuses on the Atlantis legend from both geological and mythological points of view and includes a survey of classical and modern scholarly opinion of the legend, its language and structure, and its trustworthiness in light of what is known of Plato himself and his times.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 at the bottom of the Atlantic, right where Plato said it was.
