By most standards, the Earth has had its share of natural disasters over the last millions of years. Its hidden continent is said to be a largely submerged land mass in the Pacific, nicknamed Zealandia. It is said that it is a distinct geological entity, which meets all the criteria applied to the other continents of the earth, including the presence of a large, surrounding and well-defined area of land and sea. The geology of this part of the earth is represented by a series of rocks on the seabed, as well as a series of volcanic eruptions and other geological events.
Neville Exon of the Australian National University said the two-month expedition, which starts on Friday from Townsville, would also help to better understand the global tectonic configuration that began about 53 million years ago. The geological glossary defines a continent as “one of the largest land masses on Earth, including dry land masses and continental shelves.” Gondwana in the south dispersed and formed the continents Africa, South America, Asia and the Middle East. The Bonafide continents are Africa (South Africa), Australia (New South Wales), Asia (Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea) and the southern hemisphere of Africa.
According to Mortimer, Zealandia is on the right track for the status of a continent: it has no clearly defined boundaries, a continental crust thicker than the oceanic crust, lying above the surrounding ocean crust, and being forced by waves to split from Gondwana by the great tectonic plate, the Pacific Plate, which is slowly sinking beneath it. It claims a large area about the size of the United States, and geological forces continue to rearrange the land masses.
Mortimer added that the new map therefore offers new evidence that Zealandia should be considered the eighth continent. Scientists are now mapping a map of the entire continent, reaching a major milestone in the search that began in 2017. New Zealand covers five million square kilometres of seabed first spotted years ago and now considered an island chain, but a new study of the Earth’s crust has revealed that the two parts of a single piece of continental crust are the same. Researchers from GNS Science in New Zealand have recently developed two maps that give insight into the amazing forces shaping the continent.
Does this mean exactly what we thought – that there are indeed eight continents (some geologists think Asia and Europe are a continent called Eurasia, but there are actually eight continents), and that the eighth continent, the A lost continent called Zealandia is not a vast land mass that geographers have somehow overlooked? Fourth place on the list is related to the area concerned, which makes up the continent, and it is seven instead of six. In fact, only a small part of it, including the southernmost part of New Zealand and the northernmost part of South America, is below sea level.
New Zealand is part of a vast continent called Zealandia, which sank about 60 million years ago. The new study summarizes the evidence that this hidden continent lies beneath the ocean that surrounds New Zealand. Researchers have found enough evidence to say that penguins on Earth originally came from what is now New Zealand and are almost conclusive. The eighth lost continent, called Zealandia, is not a vast land mass that geographers have somehow overlooked. Whether it is the man-made micronation of Sealand (not to be confused with the old island state of the same name in the South Pacific), the smallest land mass we see today is a sunken land mass that was once known as Continental Nzia (after its original name New Zealand), or the eighth continent.
This is the story that geologists have uncovered: that the highest point of the long-lost Zealandia is actually only a few hundred meters above sea level. Rather, only small parts of it, including the island of New Zealand itself and a small part of Sealand, lie below sea level. The new study summarizes all the evidence for the existence of this hidden continent, which lies beneath the ocean that surrounds New York City, New Jersey and the United States, and in the oceans that surround it.
Until the 20th century, the continent was not even suspected, and there was a long, slow movement of millions of years that submerged much of Zealandia. Zealandia was first coined in 1995 by geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk, but the idea of a potential continent in this area has been around for some time. The long lost continent, sometimes called Tasmantis, was founded very early in Earth’s history, and there is evidence that there was a huge super-continent in the region, possibly as early as 3.5 billion years ago.
It was home to dinosaurs and lush rain-forests, but today it is a drifting, shifting land mass with a population of only a few hundred million people. Zealandia is part of a super-continent that once had a much larger area than the continent we know today. The size of the area, which stretches from about 2,500 kilometres (2,500 miles) east to about 500 miles west, has determined whether it is large enough to be officially declared a separate continent.
Great article!