Zealandia, the submerged continent
Zealandia, el continente sumergido
- Date
- 2017 · confidence high
- Place
- GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
- Credited to
- Nick Mortimer and colleagues
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A team of geologists proposed in 2017 that Zealandia, a mass of continental crust of about 4.9 million km² almost entirely submerged beneath the Pacific, should be considered a continent. New Zealand and New Caledonia are its emerged parts.
Bruce Luyendyk proposed the name in 1995; the 2017 study systematised the criteria. There is no official definition of a continent, so its status remains debated.
What it led to
- debate on the definition of a continent
- seabed maps and continental shelf limits
- studies of the breakup of Gondwana