Why is there no desert in Europe among the seven continents?

According to the new research on the earth's crust, there is a seventh geological continent called Zealandia, which has been hidden under our eyes for many years. 1 1 The researchers of this study believe that New Zealand and New Caledonia are more than just an island chain. On the contrary, they are a single continental crust plate with 4.9 million square kilometers (1.89 million square miles), which is different from the Oceania plate. Other geologists also accepted the continental plate conclusions of the research team.

Why is Zealandia almost certainly the New World?

In fact, Luyendyk coined the word Zealandia in 1995. But Luyendyk said that this time is not used to describe a new continent. On the contrary, the name is used to describe the underwater crustal fragments of New Zealand, New Caledonia and a supercontinent Gondwana continental fault 200 million years ago. "

The researchers adopted Luyendyk's idea for further research, and re-examined the known evidence according to four criteria for geologists to identify continental rocks:

1. Relatively high land is formed from the seabed.

2. Diversity of rocks: igneous rocks (formed by volcanic eruption), metamorphic rocks (changed by heat/pressure) and sedimentary rocks (formed by erosion).

3. Compared with the surrounding seabed, the crust is thicker and less dense.

4. A large enough area is considered as a continent, not a continental fragment.

In the past decades, geologists have determined that New Zealand and New Caledonia are only suitable for the first three criteria. After all, these areas are large islands rising from the seabed, with diverse geology and composed of thicker and lower density crust.

The data also shows that Zealandia is the size of India.

The author of the study pointed out that although India was big enough to be an independent continent before, it is now a part of Eurasia because it collided and got stuck in this Eurasia millions of years ago.

Meanwhile, Zealandia has not collided with Oceania, and a submarine area called Cato Trough separates the two continents by 25 kilometers (65,438+05.5 miles).

What makes Zealandia very difficult is that it is divided into two parts by the Indian Ocean Plate and the Pacific Plate. This division makes the area look more like a group of continental fragments than a unified plate.

More importantly, the researchers write, rock samples show that Zealandia was once a part of Gondwana and migrated to Antarctica and Australia in a similar way.

Samples and satellite data also show that Zealandia is not decomposed, but a unified plate. Plate tectonics thinned, stretched and submerged New Zealand for millions of years.