Science & Technology

Lost continent 'Zealandia' revealed in new maps

By T.K. Randall
June 28, 2020 ·  4 comments

New Zealand is one small part of what was once a large continent. Image Credit: GNS Science Situated to the east of Australia - Zealandia is an entire continent of five million square kilometers that sank beneath the waves between 60 and 85 million years ago.

Nowadays New Zealand is pretty much all that's left of this once enormous landmass, however thanks to modern satellite imaging techniques it has finally become possible to begin slowly unraveling the shape and scale of this genuine 'lost world' for the first time.

Now the team behind GNS Science - a New Zealand-based research group - has released a number of highly-detailed new maps showing the hidden continent in all its glory."We've made these maps to provide an accurate, complete and up-to-date picture of the geology of the New Zealand and southwest Pacific area - better than we have had before," said geologist Nick Mortimer. "Their value is that they provide a fresh context in which to explain and understand the setting of New Zealand's volcanoes, plate boundary and sedimentary basins."

Perhaps the most intriguing of the new maps is the bathymetric map (pictured above) which shows the shape of the ocean floor and in so doing helps to highlight the sheer scale of Zealandia.

It's incredible to imagine what this long-lost continent may have been like when it was above the water.

You can check out all the maps on the GNS Science site - here.

Source: IFL Science | Comments (4)

Tags: Zealandia