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Volcanic eruptions and rising sea levels
Japan's Atlantis Unearthed
By Joshua S. Hill
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Whether an Atlantis once existed, and is now buried deep within the Antarctic Ice (I'll continue to hold to my beliefs, thank you!), the disappearance of cities beneath the waves is not one that is relegated simply to legend. Volcanic eruptions and rising sea levels have submerged several cities, across the entire face of the planet.
Structures found off the south of India's coast, the city of Heracleum lying off the coast of Egypt and discoveries off the western coast of Cuba are only some that a quick Google search will bring to your attention.
The next to join their ranks belongs to Japan, and is found below the waters surrounding the island Yonaguni Jima. According to Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist at the University of the Ryukyus in Japan, the city that he has been diving to for the past 15 years is almost certainly some 5,000 years old.
"The largest structure looks like a complicated, monolithic, stepped pyramid that rises from a depth of 25 meters [82 feet]," said Kimura, who presented his latest theories about the site at a scientific conference in June.
It is believed that this city sunk beneath the waves nearly 2,000 years ago, the result of a massive earthquake.
However not everyone is convinced; as is the way of submerged cities, they simply cannot catch a break.
"I'm not convinced that any of the major features or structures are manmade steps or terraces, but that they're all natural," said Robert Schoch, a professor of science and mathematics at Boston University who has dived at the site.
"It's basic geology and classic stratigraphy for sandstones, which tend to break along planes and give you these very straight edges, particularly in an area with lots of faults and tectonic activity."
But Kimura is not fazed by the negative attention his lost city is attracting, certain in his own discoveries. He once thought that the undersea structures could have been naturally made, until he took his first dive. "I think it's very difficult to explain away their origin as being purely natural, because of the vast amount of evidence of man's influence on the structures," he said.
Part of the evidence that he claims backs up his own claims are quarry marks within the stoke -- marks that suggest they were carved out of a quarry and then subsequently moved in to place as a building block. In addition he has seen rudimentary characters scratched in to carved faces and representations of animals carved into the stone.
"The characters and animal monuments in the water, which I have been able to partially recover in my laboratory, suggest the culture comes from the Asian continent," he said. "One example I have described as an underwater sphinx resembles a Chinese or ancient Okinawan king."
As for what this ancient city might have been, some experts have moved to claim that the city is what is now left of the once fabled city of Mu, that -- like Atlantis before it -- disappeared beneath the waves somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
Of the structures that Kimura has located are the ruins of a castle, a triumphal arch, five temples, and at least one large stadium. Each of these constructions -- a total of ten has currently been discovered -- are connected via roads and water channels, and are somewhat shielded by what may be or could have been retaining walls.
Critics like Boston University's Schoch will continue to exert their influence, saying that the structures are all naturally made, and the evidence of human hands -- like the scratching -- are just that, natural scratchings.
But experts such as Toru Ouchi, an associate professor of Seismology at Kobe University, hold with Kimura's belief that the monuments and structures were not created naturally.
"I've dived there as well and touched the pyramid," Toru Ouchi said. "What Professor Kimura says is not exaggerated at all. It's easy to tell that those relics were not caused by earthquakes."
So if you were looking for a mystery to keep you up at night or surfing the net during your work hours, you may just have found it.
Joshua can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com
