{"id":4230,"date":"2010-06-12T19:51:06","date_gmt":"2010-06-12T19:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/vitaliano-dorothy-b\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T17:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:13:14","slug":"vitaliano-dorothy-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/vitaliano-dorothy-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Vitaliano, Dorothy B."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vitaliano\"<\/a>Dorothy<\/strong> B. <\/strong>V<\/strong>italiano <\/strong>(1916-2008)<\/strong> was a geologist who published L<\/em>egends of the <\/em>E<\/em>arth<\/em> in 1973[0306<\/a>]<\/sup> in which she discussed how catastrophic seismic or volcanic events were retained for posterity in the legends of the peoples who experienced them. She invented the term \u2018geomythology\u2019 to describe what she considered to be a distinct field of study.<\/p>\r\n

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Probably inspired by Vitaliano, Cindy Clendenon has promoted a new related field of study(c)<\/sup> that she calls ‘hydromythology’[<\/sup>0801<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

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Vitaliano’s book included a chapter on Atlantis in which she expresses her opinion that there is nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean<\/a> that Atlantis could have existed. Understandably, sceptics of an Atlantic Atlantis seized upon this statement, while those that adhere to the idea that it had been a large island in that ocean were understandably dismayed. Vitaliano also discussed the biblical Plagues of Egypt<\/a> and their possible connection with the eruption of Thera<\/a> in the second millennium BC.<\/p>\r\n

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Dorothy\u2019s husband, Charles J. Vitaliano (1910-2000) was also a professor of geology and together they pursued the study of major geological events and their effect on ancient cultures.<\/p>\r\n

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There are two of Vitaliano\u2019s papers that are available online(a)(b)<\/sup>as well as some sample pages from her book(d) <\/sup>and a short review (e)<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

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In 2024, Joseph O’Donoghue<\/a> published the first two volumes [2100<\/a>\/1]<\/sup> of an eight-part series titled The Legend of Atlantis and the Science of Geology.<\/em> He has devoted a number of chapters of Volume One to a criticism of Vitaliano’s concept of geomythology.<\/p>\r\n

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(a)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/88638242\/Geo-Mythology<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(b)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/88638136\/Atlantis-a-Review-Essay<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(c)<\/sup> Hydromythology and the Ancient Greek World: An Earth Science Perspective Emphasizing Karst Hydrology \u2013 Bryn Mawr Classical Review<\/a><\/p>\r\n

(d) <\/sup>https:\/\/www.bmblebeebbooks.net\/book_pages\/1174.html (link broken)<\/p>\r\n

(e)<\/sup><\/span> https:\/\/digicoll.library.wisc.edu\/cgi-bin\/WI\/WI-idx?type=div&did=WI.v20i4.i0016&isize=text<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Dorothy B. Vitaliano (1916-2008) was a geologist who published Legends of the Earth in 1973[0306] in which she discussed how catastrophic seismic or volcanic events were retained for posterity in the legends of the peoples who experienced them. She invented the term \u2018geomythology\u2019 to describe what she considered to be a distinct field of study. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,2259,4327,607,2756,3297,4326,8029,1233,31],"class_list":["post-4230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atlantic","tag-atlantis","tag-charles-j-vitaliano","tag-cindy-clendenon","tag-dorothy-vitaliano","tag-geomythology","tag-hydromythology","tag-joseph-odonoghue","tag-plagues-of-egypt","tag-thera"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4230"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64256,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4230\/revisions\/64256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}