Zealandia — a new continent that is two-thirds the size of Australia
On February 9, 2017 eleven scientists from New Zealand and Australia posted a research that opened a new chapter in the Earth’s geology. The research known as “Zealandia: Earth’s Hidden Continent” (https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/article/GSATG321A.1.htm) proves that the newly discovered continent Zealandia meets all the required criteria and should be considered the eighth Earth’s continent.
According to the Glossary of Geology (“https://www.americangeosciences.org/tags/glossary-geology” continent is “one of the Earth’s major land masses, including both dry land and continental shelves”.
“It is generally agreed that continents have all the following attributes: (1) high elevation relative to regions floored by oceanic crust; (2) a broad range of siliceous igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks; (3) thicker crust and lower seismic velocity structure than oceanic crustal regions; and (4) well-defined limits around a large enough area to be considered a continent rather than a microcontinent or continental fragment.”
Today the continent of almost 5 million square kilometers is 94% submerged with 2 major peaks above the sea level: New Zealand and New Caledonia, and the highest point of Zealandia is Aoraki–Mount Cook (New Zealand, South Island) at 3724 m…
