"We're taught in elementary school that there are seven continents on Earth -- Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
But geography textbooks across the world might have to add one more to that list -- Zealandia.
Zealandia is a continent that is 94 percent submerged underwater, which is why it took so long for geologists to identify it. The 6 percent that is above water comprises what many know as New Zealand and New Caledonia, according to a study in GSA Today, the journal of the Geological Society of America.
Zealandia spans almost 2 million square miles, a bit larger than India. And while the idea of a mostly submerged continent in the Pacific has been known in the science community for a while, it was only in the last two decades that researchers accumulated enough data and observations to classify it as the world's eighth continent.
In 1995, Bruce Luyendyk, a geologist teaching at the University of California Santa Barbara, coined the term “Zealandia” to describe New Zealand, New Caledonia and sections underwater that broke off from an ancient supercontinent, Gondwana."
Sounds like the next Disney animation movie.
Continent number 8 - (
New Window )
Sounds like researchers have too much time on their hands and need to feign "discovery"
Bingo. Don't even get started with the continent of Oceania.
Kyrie Irving believes the earth is flat - ( New Window )
Makes perfect sense then to create a new continent when one doesn't exist.
It's just convenient.
IMO, Pluto is still a planet. This 8th continent is actually more debatable because the composition of the crust is continental, not oceanic, even though 93% of it is submerged
What is next, Azoria? I mean, WTF, the Azores have some peaks in the vicinity.
Sounds like researchers have too much time on their hands and need to feign "discovery"
The keyword you used was "research". There is a whole world of individuals that are in on the game and racket called "research". Pick a topic, research it, produce a paper and find a funding source. Was once listen to 2 young women researchers talking about finding research gigs in various cities and moving around, then their discussion always evolved to how interesting it was to live in different cities and meet guys...
certainly not labeling all research as nonsense, but some of it is a bunch of bs.
IMO, Pluto is still a planet. This 8th continent is actually more debatable because the composition of the crust is continental, not oceanic, even though 93% of it is submerged
If Pluto is a planet, then Eris and Charon are planets too...
There probably are 9 planets, we just haven't conclusively discovered the 9th one yet.