These microcontinents were created through friction between tectonic plates and resulting volcanic activity. Zealandia (/ z iː ˈ l æ n d i ə /), also known as Te Riu-a-Māui or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago. More areas of Zealandia will be mined in the future. Massive? Zealandia lies on the boundary between two tectonic plates, the Australian plate and the Pacific plate. Explaining the larger-than-expected number of continents, he wrote: ‘Although Eurasia is still the largest continent, it does not include the separate continents India and Arabia and surrenders northeastern Siberia to North America. Zealandia is a mostly submerged microcontinent about 3,500,000 km2 (1,350,000 mi2) in extent, larger than India or Greenland and just under half the size of Australia. The entire continent juts approximately 1,000-1,500 m (3,280 - 4,900 ft) from the surrounding sea floor. Why Zealandia is almost certainly a new continent. He has also worked for the At this measure, Zealandia is about half the size of Australia, however, only 6% of the continent is above sea level. The Continent of ZEALANDIA. Today, this eighth continent is 93 percent underwater, so unless you’re a mermaid the only way to see it is by heading to the South Pacific and visiting the unique islands, separated by vast oceans but connected beneath the seas, that make up the remaining visible part of Zealandia. Amazon Doesn't Want You to Know About This Plugin. The Zealandia continent, also known as Te Riu-a-Māui, is a 5-million-square-kilometer (2-million-square-mile) continent found in the southwest Pacific. The new eighth continent – Zealandia, fulfills the definition of a continent. This image is a derivative work of the following images: File:Zealandia-Continent_map_en.svg licensed with Cc-by-sa-3.0 . Among the evidence for Zealandia: The crust that makes up Zealandia is much shallower than the surrounding oceanic crust, and its geologic makeup looks more like continental versus oceanic crust. Wikibuy Review: A Free Tool That Saves You Time and Money, 15 Creative Ways to Save Money That Actually Work. And at one time, it was above water. Zealandia is a lost continent beneath the waves of the South Pacific Ocean. Zealandia might be a hidden continent, but it is twice as large as India. That’s about the size of the Indian subcontinent. The remaining 93% is submerged under 100 - 1000 m (328 - 3,280 ft) of shallow water. By this definition India, prior to its collision with Eurasia, would be termed a continent.’. Scientists are making a renewed claim for Zealandia—a land mass that is 94 percent submerged under water and includes New Zealand—to be recognized as a new continent. To know this let’s first understand what is a continent? The continent, named Zealandia. In addition to being an avid blogger, Michael is particularly Zealandia is a long, narrow microcontinent that is mostly submerged in the South Pacific Ocean. A new report published by the journal of the Geological Society of America recommends recognising the 4,900,000km2 sunken land mass of Zealandia – of which the islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia are the principle exposed features – as a fully independent continent, separate from Australia, Antarctica or any other neighbours. While the name ‘Zealandia’ wasn’t coined until 1995, the idea of it was first noted by J Graham Cogley in 1984 in a Reviews of Geophysics report, when he calculated the total area of the 14 land masses he deemed as continents to be 210,400,000km² – roughly 41 per cent of the Earth’s surface. GNS Science. In the deep South Pacific ocean lies a lost continent that, up until a few years ago, was undiscovered by man. 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