Scientists have discovered the eight continent of the world – ’Zealandia’.
’Zealandia’ – the eight continent of the world – has been discovered by scientists, after it remained ‘hidden’ in plain sight for almost four centuries.
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The eight continent – ‘Zealandia’ has been discovered by scientist 375 years after the first expedition to this unknown land was launched.
Abel Tasman, an experienced Dutch sailor with a predilection for harsh justice, was certain that a massive continent existed in the southern hemisphere and was resolved to find it in 1642.
He accepted that he had found the extraordinary southern landmass, clearly but it was clearly not the commercial nirvana he had visualized and afterward he didn’t return.
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After all, Tasman was correct: there existed an unknown continent, according to the BBC.
In 2017, a group of geologists made headlines when they announced the discovery of Zealandia, or Te Riu-a-Mui, in Mori.
It is a massive continent of 1.89 million square miles (4.9 million square kilometres), or six times the size of Madagascar.
“After all, there are eight of them, and the newest one is the world’s smallest, thinnest, and youngest,” BBC reported.
However, 94 percent of this eight continent – ‘Zealandia’ – is underwater with only a few islands, such as New Zealand, protruding from the depths.
“It had been hiding in plain sight the entire time.”
Andy Tulloch, a geologist at the New Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science, who was important for the group that found Zealandia, said: “This is an illustration of how something glaring can require a significant stretch of time to uncover.”
This is just the beginning, and the continent remains as enigmatic as ever, guarded beneath 6560 feet (2 kilometres) of water.
ABOUT ZEALANDIA
Zealandia, also known as Te Riu-a-M?ui or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.
The name and concept for Zealandia was proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995, and satellite imagery shows it to be almost the size of Australia.
A 2021 study suggests Zealandia is 1 billion years old, about twice as old as geologists previously thought.
By approximately 23 million years ago, the landmass may have been completely submerged.
Today, most of the landmass (94%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean.
New Zealand is the largest part of Zealandia that is above sea level, followed by New Caledonia.