If you want to test an Atlantis‑type story, you start with a good map of the ancient coastline, then layer on sea‑level rise data and tectonic history. Pick a period when the myth was first written down, see where the land was then, and look for sediment cores that show a sudden drop in sea level or an abrupt sedimentary gap. If the story mentions a city built on limestone or volcanic rock, drill for that rock type. But be careful—many “lost cities” turn out to be misread shipwrecks or coastal settlements that simply sank as sea levels rose. The odds that a fully intact, myth‑level metropolis lies buried beneath a few meters of sea floor are slim, but a collapsed harbour or a submerged shrine isn’t out of the question. Always compare the geological record with the text, because a good detective will never let the story run ahead of the evidence.

Sounds good, but remember the trick is to treat every claim like a crime scene. I’d start in the Mediterranean, near the Strait of Sicily or the western coast of Turkey – that’s where the earliest Atlantis legends even mention. The geology there is a patchwork of carbonate platforms and tectonic uplift, so you can find limestone signatures and see if they line up with a sea‑level drop around 12,000 years ago. Or go further afield to the Caribbean, where the Bahamas and the Azores lie on the same passive margin and have huge limestone formations that could have collapsed. Pick a spot that has both a solid geological record and a clear, old textual reference, and you’ll have the best chance of catching the myth in a rock layer.