"Ancient buried landscape" off the coast of Scotland

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Scientists have found evidence of an "ancient buried landscape" that was once above North Atlantic waters, the temporary result–at least in geographical terms–of thermal turmoil beneath the planet's surface.

In "Transient convective uplift of an ancient buried landscape," Ross A. Hartley and his co-authors write that pressure forced parts of the European continental shelf above water in three discrete steps of up to 400m.

Here, we use three-dimensional seismic data to reconstruct one of these ancient landscapes that formed off the northwest coast of Europe during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. We identify a drainage network within the landscape and, by modelling the profiles of individual rivers within this network, we reconstruct the history of surface uplift. We show that the landscape was lifted above sea level in a series of three discrete steps of 200-400 m each. After about 1 million years of subaerial exposure, this landscape was reburied

P.S. This new Atlantis' time in the sun was a good 55m years ago, which means we can just go totally science fiction with it.

More details from Annalee Newitz at io9: This lost continent off the coast of Scotland disappeared beneath the ocean 55 million years ago [io9]