Decipher the mysterious

The mystery of a "lost city", discovered in 2013 off the Greek island of Zythankos, has just been deciphered by its scientists.

The team led by Professor Julian Andrews of the University of East Anglia investigated this "city" and published the results in the Journal of Petroleum and Sea Geography.

Accordingly, the mysterious structures such as human hands in this area are due to methane gas leaking from the bottom of the sea, a natural geological feature that formed 5 million years ago.

This conclusion disappoints many who expect the "lost city" to be an ancient building comparable to Heracleion, the famous lost city in Egypt, which sank 1,200 years ago.

The "city" found by divers is located just outside Alikanas bay of Zakynthos, between Zakynthos and Peloponnese, the western peninsula of the Greek main island.

Underwater "city" position on the coast of Alikana Bay on the island of Zakynthos, Greece.(Photo: Daily Mail).

Huge stone pillars are located on the seabed, surrounded by many rows of stone-like rectangular stones. Nearby are some large circular stones that form disc protruding from the sea floor. It all looked like a Greek port city buried for centuries on the seabed.

This area has tiled floors and round columns.

According to Professor Andrews, the reason why people speculate so is easy to understand. At first glance, this area has brick-lined floors and round pillars but there are no traces of human life like pottery.

The team concluded that the city located at a depth of 2-5m below this sea level is actually a natural geological phenomenon .

The shape of donuts and a slightly circular round foot plate is a good example of the leaked hydrocarbon mineralization process commonly found in ancient geological structures and modern continental shelves.

Paving stones and columns are the result of gas leaking at the faults just below the seabed.

Paving stones and columns are the result of gas leaking at the faults just below the seabed. The bacteria that live in sediments on the continental shelf are powered by methane that will turn sediments into a kind of natural cement called dolomite .

These forms will be exposed to the bottom of the sea when the surrounding sediments are eroded.

This fusion process is quite common in bacteria-rich sediments but when the fault is not completely cut off, it will create tubular and column morphology in the sediment.

Gas erupting along the seabed in other areas will create different forms such as rectangular or pipeline sheets. These forms will be exposed to the bottom of the sea when the surrounding sediments are eroded.

Most discover similar at a depth of hundreds or thousands of meters at the bottom of the sea.

Professor also said this phenomenon is quite rare in shallow water. Only one thing in particular is that the methane leakage here occurs right on the coast. Most discover similar at a depth of hundreds or thousands of meters at the bottom of the sea. This phenomenon also occurs in the North Sea and is similar to the fracking effect, a technique of oil extraction by expanding cracks in rocks and other forms of rock so that oil and gas spill more.

The research results have destroyed all the excitement and curiosity of divers in the past few years. But according to Andrews, this area still plays an important role in the aquatic ecosystem. The small cracks will be the home for the fish like an underground ore. He also believes that the tourism industry will not be affected because the area has many beautiful things in its own way and visitors will like the peculiar structures.