One of the rocks digged out from the deep-sea during dredging works, 1,500 km far from the shore of Rio de Janeiro. Picture: AFP PHOTO/CPRM/HO Source: AFP
BRAZILIAN geologists on Monday announced the discovery, 1500km from Rio, of what could be part of the continent submerged when the Atlantic Ocean was formed as Africa and South America drifted apart 100 million years ago.
Roberto Ventura Santos, a top official at Brazil's Geology Service (CPRM), said granite samples were found two years ago during dredging operations in an area known as "Rio Grande Elevation", a mountain range in Brazilian and international waters.
Granite is seen as a continental rock.
"This could be the Brazilian Atlantis. We are almost certain but we must bolster our hypothesis. We will have final (scientific) recognition this year when we conduct drilling in the area to retrieve more samples of these rocks," the G1 news website quoted Ventura as saying.
A Geological Service of Brazi member standing next to rocks digged out from the deep-sea during dredging works, 1,500 km far from the shore of Rio de Janeiro. According to the CPRM director, Roberto Ventura Santos, the rocks would be part of the former continent submerged when the Atlantic Ocean rose up from the separation of now Africa and South America. Picture: AFP PHOT /CPRM/HO Source: AFP
Initially, the scientists thought they were mistaken, Ventura noted.
But last month, their case was bolstered when team of Brazilian and Japanese scientists aboard Japan's manned research submersible Shinkai 6500, observed the underwater geological formation located opposite the Brazilian coast, he added.
"From an analysis, we began to see that the area could be a piece of the continent that disappeared into the sea millions of years ago," Ventura said.
The legend of Atlantis was first mentioned by Greek philosopher Plato, about 360BC.
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