Scientists May Have Found The Tip Of A Sunken Continent

Scientists claim that Icelandia was a region between Greenland and Scandinavia

that was more than 230,000 square miles but is now under water.

The Earth was once a large pizza pie with all the continents connected to each other

millions of years ago, otherwise known as Pangaea.

The North Atlantic region we know today was dry land from about

335 million to 175 million years ago.

For many years, scientists and geologists assumed that the North Atlantic

Ocean was birthed as Pangaea began to split apart

roughly 200 million years ago. With volcanoes in the region where Iceland is,

the country came to be just 60 million years ago as it broke off and sailed away

from all the other lands. And since the Earth was like a large pizza pie,

it divided like one. Many of the lands split up into many large and small pieces,

creating the continents we know today. But this new theory suggests

that the result of Pangaea's splitting left out some land that stretched for around 200 miles

and just about 10 million years ago, that piece of land submerged in the waters on the

eastern and western side, leaving the tip of the land which is now Iceland.

When plate tectonics moved, they grind on each other,

which gave shape to our current landscape, all thanks to the mantle.

This new radical theory goes against everything written in history books

and what scientists have been studying. They began shaking heads,

drawing lots of skepticism and criticism. But by analyzing the ocean floor under Iceland

and the Earth's crust, we can assume that this idea isn't far-fetched.

The crust beneath Iceland happens to be a lot thicker than the typical ones.

Oceanic crust is made up of unique melted rocks compared to the land crusts where we walk and

live on. And is a lot more denser. The thinnest layer on Earth is the crust where life takes place.

It's essential for water, growing food, gathering natural resources and minerals

and breathing in oxygen. It sinks below to the bottom but right above the Earth's mantle.

It also refreshes itself since it constantly gets recycled into the mantle and back up.

This is why the rocks in the oceanic crust are around 25 miles thick compared to just five

miles anywhere else. This is also reasonable given that it's in a hot spot for volcanoes.

Magnetic surveys of the ocean floor show layers of molten crust in stripe patterns.

Also given the fact that the Earth's magnetic field changed its polarity over millions of years,

it played a role in shaping the foundation of our landscape. But there isn't any concrete evidence

to prove this new theory just yet. One of the first steps is to start digging the ocean floor

near Iceland. Zircon is a very sturdy mineral that can last for billions of years despite erosion

in the Earth's crust. By taking samples and studying them, researchers can estimate the

geological age of the continents. This will make sure the crust is oceanic, which is thicker

or continental, which is the regular crust we walk on. This isn't an overnight project

and would come with a hefty cost. Another way is to do seismic surveys that can measure

echoes conducted on research ships. Drilling holes, miles deep in the crust can also help with

the research. But this would cost more than studying the Zircon minerals. Some fossilized plants

unique to both Scandinavia and Greenland might prove that Icelandia was once on the surface

and possibly scattered with trees. It wasn't a cold land as it is today, so it may have had forests.

But scientists still haven't found fossil evidence of animals common in both lands to suggest

anything. But maybe time will tell. The theory goes deeper, which suggests that there was a greater

Icelandia. With Iceland, Ireland, Britain, Scandinavia, and Greenland, all in one microcontinent,

it could be a destination of winter enthusiasts and great for skiing. It could be possible to

connect Canada to greater Icelandia by train over the ocean, which would open up the economy even

more. Iceland is around 40,000 square miles, which is already quite big. And if the greater Icelandia

was present today, then Europe would be a completely different continent. Many theories are circulating

about other possible hidden microcontinents around the world. Scientists aren't certain of the

possibility of Icelandia's existence. But if all the studies conducted were done correctly,

then the theory could change everything we know about Iceland and the North Atlantic Ocean.

And this could pave the way for other sunken microcontinents around the world.

Another theory out there is that New Zealand was the tip of a lost subcontinent, even bigger than

Icelandia, called Zelandia. Studies show that it's separated from the supercontinent

Gondwana between 79 to 83 million years ago. Scientists claim that it's the thinnest and

youngest continent discovered underwater. Cretan is a core rock that acts as the main foundation

for most continents. It's at least a billion years old, but the continental crust that makes up

Zelandia is just half of that, which makes it quite young. That means some Cretan is missing,

even though it holds some leftovers of older rocks and parts of the mantle. They're estimated

to be as old as 2.7 billion years old. Scientists did some studies on the Zircon crystals from New Zealand

and found out that there is old as 1.3 billion years old. The rest of the continents are more than

3 billion years old. Scientists studied the composition of the rocks in the bottom of the ocean

around New Zealand. They're made up of silica and granite, which are found in continental crusts.

The ocean floors mainly have magnesium and iron-rich rocks. They're also thicker and higher than regular

ocean crusts around it. They conducted some studies and collected magnetic and topographic data

to see the link between the Tasman and Coral Seas in the Cato Troph region. This is the narrow

strip between Zelandia and Australia. Satellite data tracked tiny faults in the Earth's gravity

to map out the crust of the ocean floors surrounding the area. They saw the mass that makes up

Zelandia quite visible and almost the size of Australia. Even though the signs are there,

this doesn't prove anything. It's possible that there are a bunch of microcontents,

which all split apart when Australia broke free of Gondwana. Back then, the supercontinent was

made up of South America, Antarctica, Australia, Zelandia, Arabia, and the Indian subcontinent.

New Zealand is already not the biggest country out there, but if the theories are correct,

then Zelandia will be 6 times its original size. Mauritius is a young island that's only a few

million years old. Just 1200 miles off the coast of Africa, it's believed that the tiny island

came to life around 9 million years ago. The underwater volcanoes in the region

skewed out so much lava that it formed the land today. But scientists found Zircon rocks

that are more than 3 billion years old. It may also be part of a continent submerged underwater

called Mauritia, which is just a quarter of the size of Madagascar. The Zircons they found

were embedded in solid rocks and not just in the sand, which may rule out that they just washed

up on shore from another continent. Some scientists are still not convinced. They suggest that

discovering rocks that stand out from the other typical ones, brought by an eruption, could skew

the scientific community to this theory. But just like how Icelandia could be part of greater

Icelandia, Mauritia was once called Rodinia, which consisted of India and Madagascar.

Theories suggest that Mauritia was covered in water when India broke away from Madagascar,

something like 85 million years ago.