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Science & Technology

Is Zealandia the world's eighth continent ?

By T.K. Randall
February 18, 2017 · Comment icon 45 comments

There is an entire continent lurking beneath the South Pacific. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Phillip Capper
Despite being almost entirely submerged by the sea, Zealandia could soon be recognized as a continent.
The seven continents - Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australasia and Antarctica - have been recognized for centuries, but now it is looking increasingly likely that Zealandia - a landmass to the east of Australia - could also be added to the list.

Scientists have actually known about this new continent for years, but because 94% of it is underwater it has proven rather difficult to study.

Now though, researchers have published a new paper in the journal GSA Today which could lead to Zealandia being formally recognized as a distinct continent in its own right.
"The scientific value of classifying Zealandia as a continent is much more than just an extra name on a list," the team wrote. "That a continent can be so submerged yet unfragmented makes it (useful)... in exploring the cohesion and breakup of continental crust."

Covering a region of five million square kilometers, Zealandia was thought to have separated from Australia and then sank beneath the waves between 60 and 85 million years ago.

"This is a big piece of ground we're talking about, even if it is submerged," said co-author Nick Mortimer.



Source: The Guardian | Comments (45)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #36 Posted by back to earth 7 years ago
I'd love to,  but alas, I only know my own area , which  started to form as ( I like to call it it )  'Proto-Australia' , then   I would have been 700 km out off the coast on the sea floor, the nearest coast would have been close to the South Pole and our neighbours were Antarctica and India .   Oh yeah ..... all right then ....   and New Zealand            .......    India split  and went to make the Himalayas,  so it could find spiritual enlightenment .  Boil some dirty syrup slowly on the stove in a big pot and watch the surface  for further explanations  .  
Comment icon #37 Posted by danielost 7 years ago
europe is a couple of peninsulas off of asia.  the only reason europe is called a continent is because of culture differences.  the divide is the caucasus mountains are.  where the caucasian people come from.
Comment icon #38 Posted by danielost 7 years ago
so your redefining what a continent is.  then africa should be two continents divide along the rift valley and india which is on its own continental fault line should be called a continent not a sub-content.  europe and asia were called separate continents long before we knew about rift lines.
Comment icon #39 Posted by Nnicolette 7 years ago
Dirty syrup?
Comment icon #40 Posted by Socks Junior 7 years ago
You can see it in a pot of water too. Or the oil for deep frying a turkey. Convection is what he is getting at. 
Comment icon #41 Posted by Essan 7 years ago
Correctly (and geologically) speaking Europe and Asia are known as Eurasia.  One single continental landmass.   Into which the sub-continent India has just rudely collided   Danielost is sort of correct in a way: it's mainly for historic, Eurocentric, cultural, reasons that we still refer to Europe as a seperate continent.  Once, of course, Europeans thought it was the only continent .....    And indeed, here in Britain we still refer to it as just "the continent" (in much the way one refers to the place where all the rubbish ends up as just "the dump" )  
Comment icon #42 Posted by Socks Junior 7 years ago
Hey, Asia shouldn't have gotten in the way of India! It knew what it was in for when Gondwana started to break up. It should have lifted its skirts and tiptoed out of the way. (Much like Greenland did even more recently, so I've heard.) Also, this whole sub-continent thing. India has so many Archean cratons in it. I think it deserves a better rep. Just because it didn't stick itself in a central position in supercontinents to absorb a lot of accretion doesn't mean it's less important than N. America. Why is Laurentia so special anyway! Sad! 
Comment icon #43 Posted by brizink 7 years ago
Those mountains are on a fault line, which I stated. Also the fault line along the "rift" (Indus) valley is not a continental fault line, it does not extend into the mantle and is considered semi active. You can compare it to a crack in the surface layer of a tile while the other tiles are actual separate tiles. 
Comment icon #44 Posted by danielost 7 years ago
again the continents were named before we know about fault lines.  we just got lucky that fault lines are where we divided them that is all.  the rift vally is in africa and is separating from the rest of africa.
Comment icon #45 Posted by brizink 7 years ago
Same is true in africa. And central-east Asia


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