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Lower the water level by 300 - 400 ft. and the Mid Atlantic Ridge becomes islands. For some reason I thought those mountains were much deeper underwater. So, during the last Ice Age when it apparently was Islands there could quite possibly have been humans there.
It would seem crazy to believe that the Pacific islands were inhabited 40k years ago by seafaring hunter gatherers but the mid-Atlantic ridge was NOT inhabited 15K years ago.
Did some reading and discovered that these islands are a part of the Mid Atlantic Ridge: Azores, Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha.
It could be more than that because of eustasy/isostasy.
The earth isnt solid. Its just solid on the very surface and we are too small to be able to tell otherwise but the earth has various layers becoming far more liquid the further travel toward the center.
Just as on a waterbed additional weight creates pressure down in some areas which means the water moves elsewhere. Mountains across the surface are like a body pushing down in one spot. In a similar way the ice caps dont just remove water and therefor weight from the ocean, it also adds more weight and therefor pressure to the poles.
Like a pea being smashed between your fingers, the distance between the poles will begin to diminish as the sides bulge out due to the weight of the caps.
So its not just a matter of the water moving elsewhere bringing the water level down, its a matter of pressure moving from one place to another causing land that was previously under pressure to now rise.