Atlantis Site Found? Google Earth Images Probably Faulty

Was a probable Atlantis site found using recently updated oceanographic mapping? When Google Earth released compiled maps of the ocean, some websites revealed an interesting feature on the ocean floor Northwest of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. The image below shows an area the size of Wales which seems to depict the outlines of man-made remains.  (All images are available in larger view if you click on them).

It is an interesting structure and sure looks like it is man-made.  Here is a larger area image so you can see it’s proximity to Africa.  Note how far off the coast it is.  And, presumably, the ocean floor at that point is well more than a mile below the surface.  What geologic process would have brought Atlantis to it’s demise so far below the ocean with no other adjoining continents in close proximity?

Coincidentally, the location is similar to an area outlined on an 1882 map which some believed was the location described by Plato who originated the story about Atlantis.  Here is a copy of that map.

Google uses various scientific data of the ocean floor to render the images of the sea bottom they recently made available.  For example, the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provided some data from satellite imaging and sonar.  It’s hard for a novice to argue against the accuracy of the data.  But so much is unknown about the bottom of the ocean that inaccuracies and anomalies are likely to occur even with the sophisticated equipment these agencies posses.

As i was thinking through this, I did a quick search of other areas of the ocean on Google Earth, and I found the following area off the coast of California.

Note the similar East/West orientation lines which seem similar to the ones in the picture above.  There are also a few lines which have a more North/South orientation at the top and bottom of this series.  These are less compelling if we attempt to interpret them as human formations.  But they do seem out of place when you look at the rest of the area.  Maybe they are trenches which emanate out of the San Andreas Fault.  But that seems improbable.

One other explanation I speculate is that the large number of overlays combine inexactly together and produce these lines.  but who knows what the real answer is.  Until some definitive proof can be had that these pictures are revealing a natural geologic process, it seems we must assume that incomplete or inaccurate data are to blame for these “formations.”