Lost Lands: Why Some Continents Go Missing—And How Scientists Find Them Again

Late last year, scientists in New Zealand announced that they had created the most thorough map of any continent on planet Earth. For decades, the geologists had dug up and analyzed countless rock samples in order to chart the continent’s plateaus, volcanoes, valleys, mountain ridges, and even its submarine shelves—the boundaries where the landmass met the sea. However, the massive mapping project had a major complication: 95 percent of the continent was underwater. Zealandia—sometimes referred to as Earth’s eighth continent—stretches almost two million square miles (about half the size of nearby Australia) beneath the South Pacific Ocean. The majority of the continent sank about 80 million years ago, when the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart, though pieces of it still peak out above the water, most notably the islands of New Caledonia and New Zealand. While it’s now the most well-charted, Zealandia is far from the only “lost continent” on Earth. That’s because, despite what your third grade teacher taught you, what makes a continent a continent has less to do with its geography and more to do with its geology. Continental crust, whether it’s above or below sea level, is thick and composed of rocks like granite, rhyolite, schist, and greywacke. Through the use of advanced imaging software, seismographs, and good old-fashioned field work, scientists are discovering and describing other lost continents that—thanks to the tectonic powers that govern our planet—have also fallen off the map. [View in Browser]( [Popular Mechanics]( [SHOP]( [EXCLUSIVE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( [Lost Lands: Why Some Continents Go Missing—And How Scientists Find Them Again]( [Lost Lands: Why Some Continents Go Missing—And How Scientists Find Them Again]( [Lost Lands: Why Some Continents Go Missing—And How Scientists Find Them Again]( Late last year, scientists in New Zealand announced that they had created the most thorough map of any continent on planet Earth. For decades, the geologists had dug up and analyzed countless rock samples in order to chart the continent’s plateaus, volcanoes, valleys, mountain ridges, and even its submarine shelves—the boundaries where the landmass met the sea. However, the massive mapping project had a major complication: 95 percent of the continent was underwater. Zealandia—sometimes referred to as Earth’s eighth continent—stretches almost two million square miles (about half the size of nearby Australia) beneath the South Pacific Ocean. The majority of the continent sank about 80 million years ago, when the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart, though pieces of it still peak out above the water, most notably the islands of New Caledonia and New Zealand. While it’s now the most well-charted, Zealandia is far from the only “lost continent” on Earth. That’s because, despite what your third grade teacher taught you, what makes a continent a continent has less to do with its geography and more to do with its geology. Continental crust, whether it’s above or below sea level, is thick and composed of rocks like granite, rhyolite, schist, and greywacke. Through the use of advanced imaging software, seismographs, and good old-fashioned field work, scientists are discovering and describing other lost continents that—thanks to the tectonic powers that govern our planet—have also fallen off the map. Late last year, scientists in New Zealand announced that they had created the most thorough map of any continent on planet Earth. For decades, the geologists had dug up and analyzed countless rock samples in order to chart the continent’s plateaus, volcanoes, valleys, mountain ridges, and even its submarine shelves—the boundaries where the landmass met the sea. However, the massive mapping project had a major complication: 95 percent of the continent was underwater. Zealandia—sometimes referred to as Earth’s eighth continent—stretches almost two million square miles (about half the size of nearby Australia) beneath the South Pacific Ocean. The majority of the continent sank about 80 million years ago, when the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart, though pieces of it still peak out above the water, most notably the islands of New Caledonia and New Zealand. While it’s now the most well-charted, Zealandia is far from the only “lost continent” on Earth. That’s because, despite what your third grade teacher taught you, what makes a continent a continent has less to do with its geography and more to do with its geology. Continental crust, whether it’s above or below sea level, is thick and composed of rocks like granite, rhyolite, schist, and greywacke. 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