Angelos Georgiou Galanopoulos Greek Άγγελος Γαλανόπουλος, English Angelos (Aggelos) Galanopoulos^[1] (1910-2001) was a Greek seismologist who is most commonly known for his research on the lost Atlantis. He was born in Achaea on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece. Galanopoulos was appointed a national representative of Greece to various international organizations related to seismology.^[2] Due to some discrepancies in Plato's theory of Atlantis, he and others identified problems with the chronology and descriptions of geography and suggested an alternative explanation based upon an ancient volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini.

Education and Career

Galanoupolous graduated from the School of Sciences of the National University of Athens (NUA) in 1932. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Seismology from the University of Athens in 1937

In 1934, he became an assistant to the Seismological Laboratory of the NUA. Galanopoulos was elected as Senior Lecturer of Seismology in 1943 and in 1944 was elected to be a Senior Lecturer in the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He became Director of the Institute of Geodynamics of the National Observatory of Athens where he served until 1978.^[3] In 1959, Galanopoulos was elected to Full Professor in the Department of Seismology at the NUA, where he served until 1978. His research took him abroad several times. In 1950, he received a research fellowship at the University of Torontoseis in Canada and in 1951 he worked in the Caltech Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Theories

Scholars for many years have been attempting to tackle the mysteries of the supposed lost continent of Atlantis, originally mentioned in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues of Plato. In 1969, Galanopoulos proposed that the volcanic island of Thera in the Aegean Sea, now known as Santorini was the basis for stories of Atlantis^[4] Edward Bacon, archaeologist and co-author with Galanopoulos on the book Atlantis: The Truth behind the Legend, believed that geological and archaeological research confirms that the legendary kingdom of Atlantis did exist on Santorini.

Galanopoulos first proposed that the catastrophic eruption of Santorini in 1500 B.C. was the disaster that sunk Atlantis. He suggested that the volcanic eruption probably destroyed much of the infrastructure of civilization on nearby Greek islands and other coastal regions of Greece^[5] In 1967, Santorini was a half-sunken caldera when Akrotiri, a buried city that perished in the catastrophe, was uncovered by Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos. Galanoupoulos argued that Plato had his dates wrong by a factor of ten. Plato had claimed that Atlantis was submerged 9000 years before Solon when the actual figure was 900 years^[6]

Excavations on Santorini

Galanopoulos obtained samples of charcoal from under the layers of volcanic tephra thrown out at the time of the explosion and subjected them to radiocarbon dating, establishing that the catastrophe occurred 3,300 ± 100 years ago, that is, within 100 years before or after 1460 B.C. This date agrees with the archaeological estimates of the time of the final destruction of the Palace of Knossos on Crete, a capital of the Minoan civilization whose destruction had been dated to the end of the 14th century B.C. ^[7]

Galanopoulos made a drawing of the Metropolis of Atlantis according to Plato's description and has shown how it fits exactly into the plan of Santorini. According to his theory, the origin of the story of Atlantis has finally been solved.

Ganaopoulos Santorini

Criticism

Galanopoulos supported the idea that the Egyptian hieroglyphic numeral for 100 was misread as 1000 and so erroneously increased all numbers in Plato's text by factors of ten. However, this explanation does not hold up to careful scrutiny, as the Egyptian hieroglyphics are distinctly different^[8].

Galanopoulos suggested that that the miracle of the parting of the sea in the Book of Exodus could be explained as the effects of a tsunami from the Santorini eruption. However, this interpretation is not convincing^[9]

Works

Galanopoulos wrote numerous papers on seismology, seismotectonics and seismic hazards of Greece.^[10]

Books

-Atlantis; the truth behind the legend

-Die Wahrheit über Atlantis

-Katalog der Erdbeben in Griechenland für die Zeit von 1879 bis 1892

-Atlantide (L'). La vérité derriere la légende

-Greece : a catalog of shocks with I₀ [mathematical sign of greater than or equal to] VI or M [mathematical sign of greater than or equal to] 5 for the years 1801-1958

-Aftershock sequence and crustal structure in the region of Greece

-The earthquake activity in the physiographic provinces of the eastern Mediterranean Sea

References

^ Facultygeo2010
^ Karakaisis1997
^ Karakaisis1997
^ Christopher2001
^ CIP2008
^ christopher2010
^ Bennett2006
^ atlantipedia2010
^ Vitaliano2012
^ Karakaisis1997

<FacultyGeo2010.www.geophysics.geol.uoa.gr/ > <Karakaisis,Papazachos. Department of Geophysics, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, n.d. Web. <http://geophysics.geo.auth.gr/new_web_site_2007/download_files/IASPEI_giorgos.pdf>. <Christopher, Kevin. Atlantis: No Way, No How, No Where. http://www.csicop.org/sb/2001-09/atlantis.html. Created 2001. Accessed November 7, 2012.> <Atlantipedia.http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/galanopoulos-angelos/> <CIP2008.http://cip2008.di.uoa.gr/CIP08%20Info/About_Santorini.pdf> <Bennett2006.http://www.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=931972344&page_id=1698229675&page_url=//www.matrixofcreation.co.uk/JGB/systematics-vol1-no2-127-156.htm&page_last_updated=2006-08-31T12:18:28&firstName=Angelos&lastName=Galanopoulos> <Wiki2012.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassilis_Papazachos> <Vitaliano2012.page12.http://www.scribd.com/doc/88638242/Geo-Mythology>

[1] Facultygeo2010

[2] Karakaisis1997

[3] Karakaisis1997

[4] Christopher2001

[5] CIP2008

[6] ristopher2010

[7] Bennett2006

[8] tlantipedia2010

[9] Vitaliano2012

[10] Karakaisis1997

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