Sensational discovery: scientists discovered a new continent
Last reviewed: 16.05.2018
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Geologists have proved the existence of another continent, which currently lies in the waters of the ocean and rises above it the shores of New Zealand.
The continent, according to scientists, is a large terrestrial surface that was separated from Gondwana many millions of years earlier (Gondwana is the oldest supercontinent of the southern hemisphere, which included Africa, Zealand, Australia, Antarctica, South America, Madagascar, India and Arabia ).
This news became public due to the publication in the journal GSA.
Nick Mortimer, of Dunedin Institute of Geology and Nuclear Physics (New Zealand), argues that over the past decades, experts have gathered a lot of evidence to which continent the New Zealand Islands belong.
Some scientists even shared the opinion that the discovery already made it possible to separate the islands and the terrestrial surface that lies in the water element in a separate continent. "We have analyzed all the evidence and can with 100% chance to assert the existence of the" Zealand "continent."
Over the past decades, experts have done a lot of work, which allowed to violate the generally accepted notions about the continental face of the Earth. For example, not so long ago, geologists confirmed the ancient existence of the supercontinental zone of Mauritius (at the moment it is the location of the island of Mauritius). This continent was subjected to natural destruction and disappeared many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The islands of New Zealand differ from the above example in that their origin can not be explained by either volcanic or tectonic nature. Prior to the current discovery, geographers allegedly included New Zealand in the Australian mainland, which is the largest part of the supercontinent of Gondwana.
However, now this theoretical assumption is recognized as a mistake. Zelandia clearly belongs to other landscape slabs, which had an area no less than the Australian one. Just at some point, this plate plunged into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
In part, this information was also confirmed by scientists from other countries: the layers of continental crustal deposits within the New Zealand Islands are peculiar and separate, and differ significantly from the structure of the Australian plate - that is, they were formed separately.
Presumably, the ancient "Zeal" plate at a certain time gave a crack, which was the reason for the slow immersion of the continent under the water. The dimensions of this slab are approximately 94% higher than the visible areas of New Zealand land and Caledonia, and amount to no less than 4.9 million square kilometers. Such data was published by the publication of the Geological Society of the USA.
Nevertheless, at the present time a large number of specialists are skeptical about this discovery. Many demanded surface and underwater relief images, measurements of geophysical fields, satellite photographs to be able to assess the tectonic outlines. In addition, an independent group of experts should be involved, with further discussion of the opening at the regular Congress of Geologists.
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