The waters off the coast of Greece are an archaeologist ’s dream — a wreck here , an amphora there . So when a loon in the Ionian Sea said he ’d found the cadaver of a lost urban center , there was n’t much reason to doubt him . Yet a new study conclude that the recessed metropolis ’s tidy columns , program , and paving stone - alike slabs are all product of a natural phenomenon . The report was published in the journalMarine and Petroleum Geology .
Shortly after the site ’s discovery in 2013 , Hellenic functionary send divers down to check it out . Theyreportedthat the urban center had a visible courtyard attached to what may have been a large public building , which indicated a flush community of interests . Yet away from the city itself , these theoretic deep people had go forth no suggestion that they ever existed .
The symmetrical Lucy Stone circles , column , and slabs drew the care of geologists , whosuspectedthe city might not have been a city at all . They take up another look at the site , collect sample distribution from the stones , and brought them back to the lab for analysis . Through a compounding of high - powered microscopes and molecular analysis , the investigator larn that the metropolis ’s column and paving stones were , in fact , the products of a weird geologic phenomenon .
Lead source Julian Andrews is an environmental scientist at the UK ’s University of East Anglia . He and his conscientious objector - source believe the formation were due to fundamental interaction between minerals , gas , and bug on the sea flooring .
“ We found that the linear distribution of these annulus - shaped concretions is likely the solution of a sub - surface fault which has not fully ruptured the surface of the sea layer , ” he say in a pressure statement . “ The fault allowed gas , specially methane , to escape from depth . ”
That escaping methane was used as fuel by microbe living in the sea bed . The action of the microbes then commute the chemical content of the surrounding sediment , churning it into a kind of natural stone cement .
“ These features are proof of raw methane ooze out of rock from hydrocarbon reservoirs , ” articulate Andrews . “ The same affair happens in the North Sea , and it is also alike to the consequence of fracking , when humans basically speed up or enhance the phenomena . ”
proud of with their work , Andrews and his fellow summarise their findings with a rhyme : “ ’ column and pavements in the sea , not always antiquities will be ’ . ”
But not everyone is so proud of . Diver Pavlos Voutos , who come upon the site , insisted in a2013 editorialthat the city was , in fact , a city , and that any title to the opposite were a politics confederacy .
In an electronic mail tomental_floss , Andrews aver his squad ’s research speak for itself : " All the datum we collected are consistent with a geologic origin as outline in our oeuvre . "
All image from J.E. Andrews et al . 2016
