The myths of many peoples often tell of cities or islands that perished forever in the depths of the sea. Most of us are skeptical about such stories, but some of them actually turn out to be true.
Atlantis myth
On one catastrophic night, the gods sent fire and an earthquake of such force that the utopian kingdom of Atlantis was deep under water and could never be found again.
So it says in a myth that Plato told his listeners more than 2300 years ago. Subsequently, many people tried to guess where the mysterious Atlantis really was: in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain or even in Antarctica. One of the most popular ideas is that the fate of Atlantis is tied to the island of Thera, which was partially destroyed by a volcanic eruption that occurred about 3,600 years ago. Now it is the Greek island of Santorini. But many scientists believe that there is no point in associating Atlantis with any specific place, since it is only a myth.
But Atlantis isn't the only sunken city legend. Similar stories are told all over the world, and now it turns out that many of them are true.
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Plato lived in a volcanically and tectonically active part of the world where massive earthquakes and tsunamis were not unusual. He watched what was happening around him and used these details to make his account of Atlantis more credible.
Geomythology
Despite the skepticism of many scientists about this ill-fated island, more and more geologists are interested in such myths in the belief that some can indeed shed light on ancient geological events.
In 1966, Professor Dorothy Vitalino even came up with a name for a new discipline - geomythology. According to the scientist, this science seeks to guess the riddles of the past and find real geological events that formed the basis of a myth or legend.
Myths are largely based on events that have disastrously affected society. Thus, myths can become a window into those events that can be reconstructed and even dated.
A detailed study of such geomyths provides valuable information, for example, the date of the last volcanic eruption in Fiji.
Scientists have no shortage of myths or geological events to ponder: stories of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes abound, just like stories of catastrophic floods and lands that have disappeared forever into the sea.
Myths and truths about the lost island of Teonimanu
For example, there is a legend about another lost island - Theonimanu, which should be located in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. Legend has it that it was a tall island, not some low atoll or reef that could be easily flooded. It was a substantial island that disappeared.
The legend tells of a cuckold husband whose wife moved to Theonimanu island with another man. The furious husband went to the island to take revenge. He took with him the waves attached to the front and back of his canoe. Arriving on the island, he planted two plants, and he hurriedly went back. The husband's curse had to come true when the leaves appeared on the plants. On this day, the flood was to begin. From the top of a mountain on his island, the husband watched as eight waves, one after another, hit Theonimana until he was completely sunk.
The waves mentioned in the legend can be interpreted as tsunamis. But in reality, tsunami waves, even very strong ones, will not be able to wash away the island if it is high and volcanic. Geologists believe that an underwater earthquake actually occurred, which led to the death of the island, which always balanced on the edge of a steep slope. After tremors damaged its base, landslides occurred, which in the process caused a tsunami.
For the people who were able to survive, waves and destruction became inextricably linked. But in fact, it turns out that the island sank and thereby provoked high waves. For an uninformed observer, it is more logical to call the waves the cause of the destruction of the island.
Scientists are faced with similar myths, but they interpret them as describing the loss of population, rather than the literal loss of the islands themselves.
In fact, many scientists doubt that the islands could slide into the water this way. However, it should be borne in mind that the volume of the surface of the island, such as Teonimanu, is much smaller than the lesions in large landslides. Moreover, studies of the seabed in this region have revealed a lot of debris that may be evidence of the loss of the islands. This suggests that entire islands may indeed disappear.
Lost cities
Equally dramatic are the ancient stories of coastal cities that perished in the waves. Some are described in ancient Sanskrit texts, including the Mahabharata. It is 4,000 years old and hailed as the longest epic narrative in world literature. Initially, "Mahabharata", as well as another epic work - "Ramayana" - was written on palm leaves.
The Mahabharata tells how Krishna, after a victorious battle, decided to leave the city of Dvaraka and return to his heavenly abode. And the Arabian Sea has swallowed this city. Although for a long time it was considered that this is nothing more than a mythological city, during an archaeological study in 1963, Dvaraka was discovered in the sea off the Indian coast of Saurashtra.
Similar stories exist about the city of Pumpuhara and the ancient ruins in the city of Mahabalipuram. It is now known that both of them were real. The ruins of Mahabalipuram appeared after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. If you look at such places, they all say the same thing: big waves hit the ground and washed away the cities in which people lived.
And although scientists believe that tsunamis are not capable of causing such severe destruction, landslides that appeared after the glacial rise in sea level slowly destroyed the foundations of such islands and cities. Tsunamis were just finishing this job.