Scientists resumed the expedition to the mysterious sunken continent

2017-09-30 18:50

Scientists resumed the expedition to the mysterious sunken continent
In the beginning of the year geologists from New Zealand, New Caledonia and Australia put forward the hypothesis that Zealand is a separate former continent.

An international group of scientists made an expedition to a hypothetical continent — Zealand, reports Rus.Media. Among other things, the researchers found fossils that allow us to understand that the continent was under water not always.

In the beginning of the year geologists from New Zealand, New Caledonia and Australia put forward the hypothesis that Zealand is a separate former continent. It has an area of 4.9 million square kilometers (half the area of Australia), but 94% is under the waters of the Pacific ocean; New Zealand and New Caledonia is the largest part of Zealand, located above sea level. One of the grounds for possible discharge Zealand as the continent was the fact that the crust in the underwater part of the region is more similar to the continental, and not oceanic.

The team, which consists of 32 researchers from 12 countries, made 9-week expedition to explore the sunken continent,” reads the press release. Drilled the seabed at six locations, the scientists collected samples of bottom sediments at a depth of 1 250 meters, which allowed to understand the climatic and geographical changes that Russia has undergone over the last 70 million years. Studied thousands of petrified remains and identified hundreds of species, which show that Zealand was not always under water. It is assumed that she sank in about 80 million years ago, when he broke away from Australia and Antarctica. The study also shows that the formation of Pacific volcanic ring of fire, the event 40/50 million years ago, led to a strong deformation already sunken Zealand.

Strong geographic changes that occurred with the “continent”, help to understand how animals and plants have evolved and migrated in the South Pacific ocean. So, in the past the region has shallow water and small plots of land, which “moved” various types of flora and fauna.

Research samples of sediment collected during the expedition, will help to understand the movement of tectonic plates and the global climate system, the researchers note. In particular, the researchers hope that the collected during the expedition data will help create more accurate climate models that existed on the planet in the Eocene epoch (56/33,9 million years ago). This, in turn, will help to more accurately simulate future climate conditions.