Luigi Usai’s 2021 Atlantis theory
In January 2021 Luigi Usai, an independent researcher, released a new hypothesis according to which the sinking of Atlantis is due to the sudden melting of the ice following the Würm glaciation. It is known to geologists that the level of the Mediterranean sea reached -120 meters below the current level about 14,000 years ago. Also known is the so-called “Messinian salinity crisis”, during which Sardinia and Corsica were joined due to the lowering of the sea level by over one hundred meters, and could be covered on foot. At that time, according to Usai, Sardinia and Corsica and a large part of the currently submerged coasts formed what appeared to be a large island, which was called in the third chapter of the Timaeus and in Critias, by Plato, with the name of Atlantis. These theses were published in February 2021 and made known all over the world through the text “The map of Atlantis”. It is incredible to note the presence, for the first time compared to all the other theories on Atlantis, of a remarkable toponymy relating to the Atlantean myth. It should be noted that the plain calls Campidano is a geological Graben, that is, a land that can sink: this may be one of the causes of the sinking of Atlantis. To understand this concept it is necessary to know the Graben-Horst phenomenon in geology. Usai put forward the hypothesis that the mythical island of Atlantis was none other than the Sardinian-Corsican block and the related continental plate submerged during the various “meltwater pulses”. The Atlantean plain would therefore be largely submerged alongside the current western coasts of Sardinia and Corsica. At the center of the Atlantean plain and the present Campidano plain, there would be what was the capital of Atlantis, also known as Atlantis, and which started from a hill near the small village of Santadi, forming concentric circles of land and sea. It is still possible to note how, starting from Santadi, the whole urban plan develops in concentric circles, part of these circles is still visible from satellite, even with Google Maps. There is also a vast toponymy related to the myth of Atlantis. In fact, as Usai points out, next to Santadi there are many localities whose name recalls the hot and cold water sources created by Poseidon, who according to Usai was a simple man, probably a King, and not a God. Capital of Atlantis a hot spring and a cold water spring. In fact, even today there are fractions of villages called “Acquacadda” (Hot Water), S’acqua callenti de basciu (Hot water below) and S’Acqua Callenti de Susu (Hot water above). In the nearby town of Siliqua, also located in the province of Cagliari, the “Castello d’Acquafredda” of Siliqua still exists. Furthermore, reports Usai, the tridents of Poseidon were found carved in the Neolithic and Paleolithic rocks found near the town of Laconi, in Sardinia.
- ^ Luigi Usai, Atlantide è il blocco continentale Sardo-Corso sommerso durante i Meltwater Pulse: Dopo l’ultima glaciazione, Amazon, 18 marzo 2021, ISBN 979-8-7238-5624-0. URL consultato il 13 maggio 2021.
- ^ (IT) Luigi Usai, La mappa di Atlantide, 1ª ed., 2021, pp. 84, ISBN 979-8707230707.
