QUest for the Limits of LifE

Japan and Brazil are located on two different continents. One in Asia and another in America. Although the distance between the two countries reached more than 18 thousand kilometers, the urge to solve the lost continent mystery has led researchers team from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) institute to Brazil.

Not in vain the Japanese team that sailed several seas and oceans to come to Brazil, on April 30, 2013, JAMSTEC, and the Brazilian goverment announced the discovery of granite rocks on the sea floor off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

A member of the Geological Service of Brazil with the rock dug out from the deep sea bed 1,500 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. (Picture from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/)

The findings indicate that in the past had no land there because granite is formed only on dry land. However, experts said it was too early to conclude that the granite is proof that the legendary island of Atlantis really exist. Doubt arises from the sea floor where the discovery of granite rocks is thought to have sunk a few tens of million years ago, so much older than the legend of the disappearance of the island into the sea.

The 'Brazilian Atlantis' location. Granite samples were
found 1,500 km (900 miles) from Rio, near the Rio Grande 
Elevation - a mountainous rock formation along the floor 
of the Atlantic Ocean. (Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/)

Involvement of the institutions that conduct research and development in marine science in the search for Atlantis begins when JAMSTEC send a mission to the Brazilian waters as part of around the world for a full year cruise projects, The "QUELLE 2013", which was shortened from Quest for the Limit of LifE. In German, Quelle also means root or origin.

The project's mission is to explore hydrothermal vents, sites of gas seepage on the ocean floor, deep ocean trenches, and other extreme environments to explore the limits of the area that can be occupied by living beings and unique strategy for survival. The team departed on January 5, 2013 by Yokosuka vessel, headed the Indian Ocean, South Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and the South Pacific.

The JAMSTEC team has learned that Brazilian scientists managed to take a substance similar to granite in that area, but they could not be sure whether the rock was indeed part of the ocean floor or fell from the boat across the waters. "So, the discovery of granite is not a coincidence," said an official JAMSTEC.

Shinkai 6500, a deep-sea submarine. (Picture from: http://www.jamstec.go.jp/)

To determine the granite origin, the JAMSTEC team sends a deep-sea submarine Shinkai 6500. "Researchers who are skeptical of the submarine was able to find granite down there," the official said. The submarine was developed to study the topography and geology of the sea floor and conduct research in marine organisms not only around Japan, but the whole ocean in the whole world. The Shinkai 6500 can dive to depths of over 6,500 meters with two pilots and one scientist crews.

In search for lost world: A Shinkai 6500 manned submersible belonging to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology probes the seabed off the coast of Rio de Janeiro on April 30. (Picture from: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/)

Despite the latest discovery, however, experts remained cautious about jumping to conclusions about Atlantis. Shinichi Kawakami, a professor at Gifu University versed in planetary sciences, said the granite could have been a part of a big continent before it separated into what is now Africa and South America.

"South America and Africa used to be a huge, unified continent. The area in question may have been left in water as the continent was separated in line with the movements of plates," he said. 

Kawakami said researchers must look further into the composition of the granite and see if it matches the granite now found in Africa or South America. "The concept of Atlantis came way before geology of the modern age was established. We should not jump to the Atlantis (conclusion) right away," he said. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | JAMSTEC | THE JAPANTIMES | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4228]
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