Like me, most of you must have learned at school that there are seven continents on earth. Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
But now it seems you shall have to update on that knowledge because scientists have announced that they have found a new one, and have christened it Zealandia.
But the thing is, 94% of this new continent is under water!
[Photo Source]
After years of exhaustive gathering of data and data analysis, scientists have now announced that there’s a big hidden underwater continent located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, something that they had only suspected so far.
If you were wondering where the hell was that, then please be informed that what was believed to be an island chain consisting of New Zealand and New Caledonia, are in fact not an island chain but a part of a 1.89 million-square-mile region separate from Australia which, according to the researchers, is “the youngest, thinnest, and most submerged continent on the planet".
It also seems it had been there all along and nobody had noticed it as a quote from the paper submitted by these researchers reads
This is not a sudden discovery, but a gradual realization; as recently as 10 years ago we would not have had the accumulated data or confidence in interpretation to write this paper.
I have no clue as to the usefulness of this information or its value, because for me New Zealand will still be the same old country among others out there. But I guess we shall now have to take it as a fact, that now we have eight continents on our planet.
- http://www.businessinsider.in/earth-has-a-brand-new-continent-called-zealandia-and-its-been-hiding-in-plain-sight-for-ages/articleshow/57175757.cms
- https://scroll.in/latest/829503/theres-an-eighth-continent-called-zealandia-in-the-pacific
- http://www.inquisitr.com/3985577/zealandia-new-continent-found/
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4229632/Zealandia-named-new-continent-scientists-reveal.html
- http://www.sciencealert.com/earth-has-a-brand-new-continent-called-zealandia/
- http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/offbeat/underwater-continent-zealandia
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It's like the opposite of the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. I always knew there was something about New Zealand. My Kiwi friends always seemed more of a continent type folk.
Lol, liked the way you put it, continent type folks!
Great discovery! Would Atlantis been part of this ney discovered continent?
I have thought, for a long time, that Atlantis was more a global civilization, than an actual continent. If we look at the world today, we see that much of the world's population lives on or close to the coastlines. When the last ice age melted, there may not have been warning before the coastal cities, population and all were swallowed by the waves. A quick look shows an ice age sea level of 100 to 125 meters lower than today. How much of our civilization would sink beneath the waves if that happened today?
There are many structures off the coast of Japan. If we were to find a way to do undersea archeology, I think we would find Atlantis around every continent at the depth of 100 meters.
Interesting thought!
Maybe a couple of years and we have the tools to investigate deep waters; robotica will help a lot; then money is required and the will to further research this topic :)
We should have the resolution and spectrum scanning ability to do it by satellite already, or at least soon.
Aha, Atlantis! I have no clue if they are are anywhere closer to this enigmatic continent.
Hahaha; was more a hypothetical question; we never found Atlantis; some believe it was in the black sea, but how wrong would they be if it was on this new continent hahaha
And some seem to think it is in Antarctica!
At least closer to Zealandia :)
Interesting post @norbu
I imagine that my Australian friends wouldn't jumping with joy with this news, on the other hand my New Zealand friends must be celebrating.
This new fact empowers New Zealand from the small neighbor of Oceania to its own position in the global map.
I am going to keep watching the follow up and future developments.
But caution your friends from New Zealand not to jump too high as most of the continent is under water and they would "wet their pants"!
They are good swimmers :D
Lol, true!
Very interesting! Pretty small for a continent, always associated that with a larger land mass. though perhaps it is large (1.8 MSqMi) just mostly submerged yeah, just seems small. Do you know off hand what the areas of the other continents are?
In fact this is the first time we have the area of a continent spelled out like this because it is so small! And you are correct in that continents were never measured in SqMi in the past, but I guess there will be an exception, like in this case, which is telling of its small size.
But sorry, I have no clue about the size of the others!