Search for Atlantis led by Harvard scholars from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

In 1931, an epic search for Atlantis led by Harvard scholars began when the field of ocean science was in it’s infancy. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s oceanographer and founding director, Henry Bryant Bigelow and first mate Columbus Iselin set sail on a 42 day research cruise around the Azores to investigate how strong currents affects aspects of North America’s climate in the institution’s first research vessel, a 140-foot ketch named Atlantis.

And so the search for Atlantis led by Harvard scholars began in 1931

The two Harvard scholars couldn’t resist the opportunity to also search the seafloor for signs of an ancient metropolis—the lost city of Atlantis. The city was reported to have once existed on an island Plato famously described as “situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles.” As the story goes, Atlantis was a naval empire which ruled all Western parts of the known world.

The Minneapolis Sunday Tribune ran the story about the sensational search for Atlantis led by Harvard scholars, and wrote “scientists plan to probe for Atlantis by breaking through a thin submarine crust under which the legendary land is declared to be hidden.” With Iselin as the crew’s chief scientist with “well-equipped laboratories between decks”. The world was gripped by the story, and waited for more news that the team of scientists studying the Atlantean Plateau would confirm Atlantis’ existence.

Using soil science to search for Atlantis

Bigelow’s team had planned to remove and collect the thin top layer of seafloor and use primitive sonar to scan for ancient Atlantis artifacts or structures embedded there that could be signs of Atlantis.

Previous voyages by other oceanographers and treasure hunters estimated that the WHOI scientists should only need to break through 10-inches of seafloor to find evidence of the lost city of Atlantis. The researchers hoped the soil collected would reveal that the continental plateau that Atlantis reportedly sat on was once dry land as—Plato noted in works “Timaeus” and “Critias“. The soil type and any rocks found could have helped to determine if the surveyed areas once sustained a human civilization, and Plato’s accounts of catastrophe.

After over a month at sea, the 1931 the search for Atlantis led by Harvard scholars returned home empty-handed. No mention of any new findings regarding Atlantis can be found in their logbooks.

In 1966, WHOI oceanographic engineer James Mavor partnered with scholars in Greece to search for Atlantis in the Mediterranean Sea. Near the island of Thera in the Aegean Sea, Mavor and fellow researchers found evidence of a Minoan city dating to 1400 BCE.

The individual claim-to-fame credited with the amazing discovery was long-debated, making it difficult to research, write scholarly articles about—and the public didn’t take them seriously given the squabbling between scholars and lack of further stady. Mavor eventually wrote a book about his search for Atlantis to prove that his findings matched Plato’s description.

As time has passed, few scientists have risked their careers by so much as discussing Atlantis. This has crippled the search for the lost city and any ancient remains indicating it existed.

This only led to pseudoscientific speculation. Atlantis has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations and continues to inspire contemporary fiction, from comic books to films.