Geologists revealed that Zealandia is the Earth's hidden continent. It is a submerged continent that can be located alongside Africa and Australia. Scientist unveiled that New Zealand is sitting on a large continental crust.
According to Nature, New Zealand and New Caledonia are parts of an entire piece of continental crust. Geophysical data suggested that Zealandia is spanning five million square kilometers, which geologically separate New Zealand from Australia.
"If you could pull the plug on the world's oceans, then Zealandia would probably long ago have been recognized as a continent," said Nick Mortimer, the team leader and a geologist at GNS Science in Dunedin, New Zealand. Researchers 'new findings will put Zealandia as the world's eighth continent. It would be the smallest continent.
Zealandia has a continental crust thickness ranging from 10 to 30 kilometers. The new continent is getting up to more than 40 kilometers of New Zealand's South Island.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Zealandia is mostly being submerged. The idea of the new continent has been around since 1995. Geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk revealed that Zealandia possesses three of the four qualities as a continent. The smallest continent stretches for the Chatham Rise, New Zealand, Campbell Plateau and Lord Howe Rise.
The new study has revealed that satellite technology and gravity-derived bathymetry maps of the sea floor identified Zealandia and its oceanic ridges and plateaus, as well as the amalgam of the continental fragments and slivers.
Recently, Geologists are trying t find proofs that would consider Europe and Asia as one continent called Eurasia, which is located primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. The Pacific Ocean also borders it to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by Africa, and the Indian Ocean to the south.