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Zealandia: An eighth continent under New Zealand?
- mc32 10y agoIt kind of looks, from that map, that is could also be classified or considered a part of the Australian continent, given the "continent" mostly falls within the Australian plate.
- niftich 10y agoThe paper disagrees. Quote: The edges of Australia and Zealandia continental crust approach to within 25 km across the Cato Trough (Fig. 2). The Cato Trough is 3600 m deep and floored by oceanic crust (Gaina et al., 1998; Exon et al., 2006). The Australian and Zealandian COBs [continent-ocean boundaries] here coincide with, and have been created by, the Cato Fracture Zone along which there has been ~150 km of dextral strike slip movement, linking Paleogene spreading centers in the Tasman and Coral seas (Fig. 2; Gaina et al., 1998). This spatial and tectonic separation, along with intervening oceanic crust, means that the Zealandia continental crust is physically separate from that of Australia. If the Cato Trough did not exist, then the content of this paper would be describing the scientific advance that the Australian continent was 4.9 Mkm2 larger than previously thought.
- mc32 10y agoI wonder whether geologically they are separate or was that trough created after the plate formed --that is is it a contiguous mass with an eroded trough or were these separate masses mashed together via tectonics?
- niftich 10y agoSee their Figure 5 [1] where they hypothesize how Zealandia was formed from the breakup of Gondwana, before which it did in fact lie adjacent to what later became a separate 'Australia' continent. Some of the definitions are complicated by the fact that continents join and break up, and their continuity across multiple continental cycles is not a given -- but that of cratons is, which are sort of an inner core of really old rocks that managed to survive all sorts of tectonic abuse. Zealandia has yet to be shown to contain a craton, presence of which would probably result in its undisputed acceptance as a continent. All of today's "classical" continents are amalgamations of contiguous continental crust around one or more neighboring cratons. See the 'Geology' section for discussion. [1] https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/figure/GSATG321A.1-f05.htm https://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/27/3/figure/GSAT...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- mjfl 10y agoIt would be cool to have another ice age. I prefer the cold and you would get to have land masses like this suddenly surface!
- mc32 10y agoWhere would like half the earth's population move to, if things happened quick enough for you to experience the results of a new ice age? Like Half or Eurasia and North America would be covered in ice...
- manarth 10y agoThe Day After Tomorrow shows Mexico offering refuge to the USA. Shame someone's building a massive wall the length of the border…
- lacampbell 10y agoYou are aware that "The Day After Tomorrow" was a fictional movie, right? It's a dramatisation set in the real world. Fantasy Mexico can do all manner of things.
- thomasfoster96 10y agoLiterally cool I assume?
- skrebbel 10y agoI'm going off topic here, but I just want you to know that this is the first time in months, maybe years, I've read the word "literally" used both correctly and not pedantically* and I'm all shaken up by it. *) (well aware that this comments fails my own criterium)
- hythloday 10y agoYou may enjoy knowing that the singular of criteria is criterion (Greek, not Latin). A criterium is a bike race, from the same root: a κριτήριον is a decision, with the same nuance of meaning as English judg(e)ment.
- macintux 10y agoFinally. This same story from various sources has been submitted a half dozen times at least, glad it finally got some traction. Poor Zealandia is always under-appreciated. http://worldmapswithout.nz/ http://worldmapswithout.nz/
- keithnz 10y agoyus! rest of the world, we are big damnit! BIG I tell you! we have our own whole continent, it's a bit wet...but, still :)
- DiabloD3 10y agoSo, what I'm wondering is, why is this its own continent, and the Indian subcontinent isn't considered one?
- niftich 10y agoIndia is a former continent underlain by its own craton and its own tectonic plate that has collided with the much larger Eurasian plate in the epic Himalayan orogeny [1]. Eurasia is a multi-plate continent that forms a continuous expanse of continental crust that has geologically interacted with parts of itself for millions of years. On the other hand, Zealandia is a continent which broke away from Gondwana (much like India did) and has since stood independently apart, not accreting to any other continent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_orogeny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_orogeny
- bonzini 10y agoSo it's because it's moving away from Australia, rather than towards it?
- peterbecich 10y agoReminds me of this subducted tectonic plate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farallon_Plate
- zipwitch 10y agoOr the sunken microcontinent in the Southern Indian Ocean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Plateau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Plateau
- nerdponx 10y agoThe fact that this is apparently consensus and not a crackpot theory is the most amazing thing about it. The little kid in me is kind of wishing I had gone into geology...
- dghughes 10y agoWell that's a bit terrifying. And that small blobby bit on the far right looks like it's pointing upward under my house.
- smoyer 10y agoAren't the other seven continents the dominant land-mass on a separately defined tectonic plate? According to the article there's no agreed upon definition. In general, it's pretty easy to reclassify almost anything if you're willing to promote a new definition.
- MichaelMoser123 10y agoit might be a coincidence but all names of continents start and end with the same letter, the new one doesn't quite fit with this rule either.
- dogma1138 10y agoIt's easy just drop the last letter in New Zealand
- keithnz 10y agowhich is kind of how we say it. Kiwis are "optimized" speakers, we don't like words that make our mouth do too much work, so we optimize by smoothing out big changes. In this case it's common to hear the 'd' almost completely gone. Nu Zeelun :)
- lanna 10y agoOceania?
- legulere 10y agoIn many languages Europe is Europa because they got the name through Latin. Following this we could Latinize New Zealand with an -(i)a ending.
- ben-schaaf 10y ago> Aren't the other seven continents the dominant land-mass on a separately defined tectonic plate? The dominant land mass of the Eurasian plate is Eurasia.
- abalone 10y ago
- pwdisswordfish 10y agoIf it's mostly underwater, why not call it Atlantis?
- transfire 10y agoGeologists trying to gain relevance by toying with definitions. Not unlike, and even less significant than, the astronomical reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf-planet. Sign of the times I suppose.
- transfire 10y agoReal continents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tectonic_plates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tectonic_plates