The Azores is a group of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic, situated 740 miles from the mainland. The first recorded instance of 
their discovery is in 1427 by the Portuguese, although there is some evidence to suggest an earlier date. It is thought that the Phoenicians and Etruscans competed for control of the Azores at one point. The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher in 1665, in his book Mundus Subterraneus, was first to propose that these islands were the mountain peaks of sunken Atlantis. This view was adopted by Ignatius Donnelly and developed by successive writers and still supported by many today. The latest recruit is Carl Martin, who is current working on a book locating Atlantis in the Azores and destroyed around 9620 BC.
The late Christian O’Brien was a long-time proponent of the Atlantis in Azores theory. A bathymetric study of the area suggested to O’Brien that the archipelago had been a mid-Atlantic island 480 x 720 km before the end of the last Ice Age. Apart from the inundation caused by the melting of the glaciers he found evidence that seismic activity caused the southern part of this island to sink to a greater degree than the north. O’Brien pointed out that six areas of hot spring fields (associated with volcanic disturbances) are known in the mid-Atlantic ridge area, and four of them lie in the Kane-Atlantis area close to the Azores. I n 1982 Peter Warlow suggested[135]that a sea level drop of 200 metres would have created an island as large as England and Wales with the present islands of the Azores as mountains.
A 2003 paper(b) by four French scientists demonstrated that the Azores had been greatly enlarged during the last Ice Age. However, showing that the Azores were more extensive is not disputed, but it in no way demonstrates that it was the location of Atlantis. In fact Plato’s description of the magnificent mountains to the north and the mud shoals that were still a hazard in Plato’s day do not match the Azores.
The geologist, Darby South, strongly denied that the Azores could have been the location of Atlantis in a couple of articles posted on the Internet some years ago(a).
Nevertheless, advocates of Atlantis in the Azores must accept that there is absolutely no evidence of human occupation in prehistoric times. When the Portuguese arrived on the island in the 15th century they were found to be uninhabited. The only hint of earlier habitation was some 3rd century BC coins from Carthage discovered on the island of Corvo.
Otto Muck, among others, was certain that the enlarged Azores had deflected the Gulf Stream during the Ice Age, contributing to the extent of the western European glacier.
However, it is still far from clear what caused the ending of the last Ice Age. A number of writers including Muck speculated that an asteroidal impact in the Atlantic was responsible. When the Azores were discovered in the 15th century they were uninhabited and without any evidence of an earlier civilisation. It can be reasonably argued that since the Azores today are just the mountain peaks of a larger mainly submerged island, any remains would be more likely to be found on the plains and estuaries that are now under water.
One undeveloped theory is that the name ‘Azores’ might be linked to the ninth king of Atlantis, Azaes, listed by Plato. This idea is supported by the linguist Dr. Vamos-Toth Bator.
The renowned writer, Dennis Wheatley, used the possibility of Atlantis being located in the Azores as a backdrop to his 1936 thriller, They Found Atlantis.
(a) http://www.historykb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/ancient/592/ATLANTIS
(b) http://www.ipgp.fr/~jdy/Publis/Gente_G3_03.pdf
