The Earth’s hidden continent Zealandia has officially been revealed on New Maps. Initially known as Te Riu-a-Maui in Maori, Zealandia is extremely small, narrow, and the youngest continent in the world with at least 94% of it underwater.
The Unearthing
Going as far back as 1.3 billion years, Zealandia is being researched by scientists with the help of zircon crystals. These crystal rocks are made of the molten parent rocks of Zealandia.
Satellite images suggest that the continent is twice the size of the Earth’s largest island – Greenland. Initially, Zealandia was a part of Gondwana but after the split, only two fragments of it remain above sea level – New Zealand and New Caledonia.
Is Zealandia A Continent?
Even though Zealandia checks out all the categories of being a continent, it is still debatable whether one can define it as one. Few features required to pass as a continent are :
- It has a thick crust.
- High elevation.
- Made of rocks rich in silica and granite.
- It is a huge chunk of landmass.
However, it has been considered to be the biggest micro-continent.
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Mysteries Revolving Around Zealandia
To this date, it still remains unknown as to why and when did a part of Gondwana begin to pull away 105 million years ago.
What’s even more bizarre is how irrespective of being stretched to the point of being the thinnest land ever, it is still unclear how Zealandia hasn’t disintegrated into tiny pieces of micro-continents. The shape of the continent is oddly bent. It looks as if somebody has taken the lower half and twisted it away.
Existence Of Dinosaurs
Scientists and researchers have claimed to have found the fossils of a Sauropod, a Hypsilophodon, and an Ankylosaurus in the 1990s and in 2006.
Claims also include the discovery of the foot bone of a large carnivore, possibly an Allosaurus. The fossils date back to the split of Zealandia from Gondwana.
Thus, there is no doubt that Zealandia is the most submerged, youngest, and mysterious geographical feature found on the earth!
Image credits: Google Images
Sources: BBC, Wikipedia, Business Insider
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This post is tagged under Zealandia, Earth, Hidden Continent, Climate Change, Dinosaur, Micro-continent, zircon, fossils,Gondwana, New Zealand, zealandia earth’s hidden continent, new discovery, newly discovered continent, geographical feature, new geographical feature, geomorphology, geography, world geography, hidden mass, mysterious continent, youngest continent, submerged continent, youngest geographical feature of the earth
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