Scientist Discoverd 8th Continent of world

0510,2023

Zealandia, the eighth continent of our world.

Scientists recently discovered a new continent that had been missing from our knowledge for 375 years. This continent, called Zealandia, is mostly underwater but consists of a group of islands, similar to New Zealand.

Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, which existed about 1 billion to 542 million years ago.Geoscientists found Zealandia after centuries of it going unnoticed and created a more detailed map of it. They gathered data by studying rock samples from the ocean floor, and their findings were published in the journal Tectonics, which focuses on Earth's structure and evolution.

Zealandia is a vast continent, about six times the size of Madagascar, covering 1.89 million square miles or 4.9 million square kilometres. It's the eighth continent discovered, and it's the smallest, thinnest, and youngest one.

zealandia remains a mysterious underwater realm, waiting to be explored and understood.In 1642, Dutch sailor Abel Tasman's voyage offered the first hint of the eighth continent’s existence in the Southern Hemisphere.

In 1995, American geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk coined the name ‘Zealandia’ to collectively refer to New Zealand, the Chatham Rise, Campbell Plateau, and Lord Howe Rise.

In 2017, a group of eleven geologists hailing from New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Australia collectively determined that Zealandia met all the criteria for classification as a submerged continent, distinguishing it from being labelled as a microcontinent or continental fragment

Zealandia originally a part of the ancient Gondwana supercontinent, formed around 550 million years ago.

However, a 2021 study indicates the eighth continent’s age to be approximately one billion years, twice the previous estimates.

Zealandia is a relatively young continent, separating from Antarctica about 85-120 million years ago and later splitting from Australia approximately 60-85 million years ago.

02:03 am | Admin