Ironically it was a novel, H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, that first theorized that a lost civilization might be found in Antarctica. Since then, the idea that Atlantis might be found there has taken on new life.

The mostly widely known theory was proposed by Rand and Rose Flem-Ath in their book, When the Sky Fell. Since that time, Rand Flem-Ath has co-authored a follow up with Colin Wilson, The Atlantis Blueprint, which proposed specifically that Atlantis was to be found in Lesser Antarctica, near the coast of the Ross Ice Shelf.

The mechanism behind this proposal is a theory called Earth Crust Displacement. Charles Hapgood first proposed this idea suggesting that Earth's outer crust is able to move upon the upper mantle layer rapidly up to a distance of 2,000 miles, placing Atlantis in Antarctica, when considering the movements of the crust in the past. It should be noted that Albert Einstein was one of the few voices to answer Hapgood's theory. Einstein wrote a supporting preface for Hapgood's book Earth's Shifting Crust, published in 1958. It should also be noted that Hapgood also argued against the tectonic plate theory in his book. Tectonic plates are nor universally accepted as the mechanism by which continents move.

Hapgood in a later book, Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, unearthed documents such as the Piri Reis and Oronteus Finaeus maps which seem to show the coastline of Antarctica hundreds of years before the continent was officially discovered, and moreover, free of ice.

What is now known about the Quaternary and Holocene history of Antarctica appears to refutes the hypothesis that Antarctica was ice free and temperate at any time during the last 100,000 years. Mapping and dating of the edges of the Antarctic ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum; mapping and dating of glacial erratics, tills, and striations within now ice-free areas; microfossils from post-glacial lake deposits; coring and analysis of glacial tills and marine sediments underlying the Ross and Wedell seas; coring and analysis of ice cores; and other research has accumulated an enormous amount of data that demonstrates that Antarctica was not temperate just prior to 9,600 B.C.

• Volcanic activity.
• Is flooded if snow is considered.
• Is a very large continent with a smaller island.

• Does not sit beyond the traditional Pillars of Hercules.
• Geological evidence indicates that the climate has not been temperate in 100,000 years.
• No evidence that any ancient civilization has lived there.

• Berlitz, Charles
• Flem-Ath, Rand
• Flem-Ath, Rose
• Hancock, Graham
• Wilson, Colin

http://www.flem-ath.com/

Anderson, J.B., et al. The Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum and its subsequent retreat history. A review. Quaternary Science Reviews. Vol. 21, Issues 1-3, 2002, pp. 49-70.

Bentley, M.J., et al. Geomorphological evidence and cosmogenic 10Be/26Al exposure ages for the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. Geological Society of America Bulletin. Vol. 118, No. 9-10, 2006, pp. 1149–1159.

Evans, J., et al. Late Quaternary glacial history, flow dynamics and sedimentation along the eastern margin of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews. Vol. 24, Issues 5-6, 2005, pp. 741–774.

Flem-Ath, Rose and Rand. When the Sky Fell. Weidenfled and Nicolson, London, 1995.

Hapgood, Charles H. ”Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings. Evidence of Advanced Civilization in the Ice Age,” Adventures Unlimited Press, 1966, 1997.

• Earth's shifting crust. A key to some basic problems of earth science. Pantheon Books. 1958.

Ingolfsson, O. “Quaternary glacial and climate history of Antarctica”, in: J. Ehlers and P.L. Gibbard, eds., Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology, Part III. Elsevier, New York, 2004. pp. 3-43.

Ingolfsson, O., et al. Glacial and Climate History of the Antarctic Peninsula Since the Last Glacial Maximum, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research. Vol. 35, No. 2, 2003, pp. 175-186.

Wilson, Colin and Flem-Ath, Rand. The Atlantis Blueprint. Unlocking the Ancient Mysteries of a Long-Lost Civilization. Delacorte Press, New York, 2001