In 2017, scientists confirmed that there is a submerged earth mass called "Zealandia", but they were unable at that time to draw a map of its full extent until now, and they considered it then a small continent resembling Madagascar Island.
However, on Monday, June 22nd, researchers from GNS Science in New Zealand declared it the eighth lost continent.
They said they mapped the shape and size of that continent with unprecedented detail, and they have put their maps on an interactive website so users can actually explore the continent.
Featured maps
They created these maps "to provide an accurate, complete and up-to-date picture of New Zealand geology and the Southwest Pacific, better than we had before," Nick Mortimer, the team leader said in the press release of the New Zealand Institute "GNS Science".
In his report to Business Insider - which was reported by the ScienceAlert website - Aylen Woodward says that Mortimer and his colleagues map the depth measurement map of "Zeelandia" (the shape and depth of the ocean floor) in addition to its tectonic appearance, indicating the location of "Zeelandia" across the boundaries of tectonic plates.
The maps reveal new information about how "Zealandia" formed before they were submerged underwater millions of years ago.
Continent under water
Zealandia is approximately two million square miles (5 million square kilometers), equivalent to about half the size of Australia.
But only 6% of the continent is above sea level. This part is on the northern and southern islands of New Zealand and New Caledonia, and the remainder is underwater, which makes conducting surveys of "Zealandia" very difficult.
To better understand the submerged continent, Mortimer and his team mapped both “Zealandia” and the ocean floor around them, showing the depths they had created, how high the continent’s mountains and hills were toward the surface of the water.
The map also depicts coastal lines, territorial boundaries, and major undersea names. The map is part of a global initiative to map the entire ocean floor by 2030.
The second map developed by GNS scientists reveals the types of crust that make up the underwater continent, the age of that crust, and major faults.
The continental crust - which is the oldest and thickest type of crust of the Earth that makes up the earth's masses - appears in red, orange, yellow and brown. While the oceanic crust, which is generally younger in age, is blue. Red triangles show where the volcanoes are.
This map also reveals the location of "Zeelandia" across various tectonic plates, how these plates are pushed under the other in a process known as subduction, and how quickly this movement occurs.
She is 85 million years old
The concept of "Zealandia" first appeared after the US marine geophysics professor Bruce Lewindic coined this term in 1995.
He told Lundic "Business Insider" that when he coined the term he did not intend to describe a new continent. But the name originally referred to New Zealand and a group of submerged crust pieces that crossed the ancient great continent of Gondwana about 85 million years ago.
Gondwana was formed when the ancient great continent of the Earth, Pangea, split into two parts. Where it became Loracia in the north and includes Europe, Asia and North America. Gondwana went to the south to form modern Africa, Antarctica, South America and Australia.
Geological forces continued to rearrange these terrestrial blocks, and "Zeelandia" was forced under the waves after about 30 million to 50 million years after it separated from Gondwana as the largest tectonic plate (the Pacific plate) and slowly mowed beneath it.
A continent like others
Until 2017, scientists ranked "Zealandia" as a "small continent" like Madagascar Island. But according to Mortimer, "Zealandia" has all the features that make it take the status of the continent.
It has clearly defined its borders, and it occupies an area greater than 386 thousand square miles (one million square kilometers) and it rises above the surrounding crust of the ocean, and finally it has a thicker continental crust than that of the oceanic crust.