Scientists stumble on incredible discovery of new continent that was formed 60 million years ago
Topics: World News, Science
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: Jose A. Barnet Bacete via Getty/Getty Stock Image
Topics: World News, Science
Scientists have discovered a new microcontinent which they believe was formed 60 million years ago.
The incredible discovery was made by researchers Luke Longley and Dr. Jordan Phethean, from the University of Derby in the UK, as well as Dr. Christian Schiffer from Uppsala University in Sweden.
The microcontinent, which is located between Canada and Greenland, is 250 miles long and is sitting below the Davis Strait, which connects the Labrador Sea in the south with Baffin Bay in the north.
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The discovery was made while the team were examining the area's tectonic plate activity and now, a study into its formation has been published in Gondwana Research.
"Rifting and microcontinent formation are absolutely ongoing phenomena—with every earthquake, we might be working towards the next microcontinent separation," Dr. Jordan Phethean told Phys.org.
"The aim of our work is to understand their formation well enough to predict that very future evolution."
It's believed that the microcontinent could have started to form 118 million years ago.
The team explain that microcontinents are 'related regions of relatively thick continental lithosphere separated from major continents by a zone of thinner continental lithosphere'.
Although the rifting first began 118 million years ago, scientists think the seafloor spreading began around 61 million years ago before the continent became totally separated around 33 million years ago.
The incredibly important research could be vital in understanding how other microcontinents are formed.
“Better knowledge of how these microcontinents form allows researchers to understand how plate tectonics operates on Earth, with useful implications for the mitigation of plate tectonic hazards and discovering new resources,” said co-author Dr Jordan Phethean.
Meanwhile, geologists are convinced that a new ocean is being created in Africa as the continent continues to shift apart.
Countries like Zambia and Uganda, which are currently landlocked, could one day have their own coastlines due to the East African Rift.
The rift has received more media attention in recent years, following a sudden large crack that appeared in Kenya in 2018.
Some scientists have suggested that this is due to the African tectonic plate breaking in two.
But this is not the only theory that geologists have about the how the crack has formed.
Others have suggested that the cause could be soil erosion.
The rift means that over a period of tens of millions of years, a new ocean will lead to seafloor spreading along the entire length of the rift, which is apparently beginning to happen already.