Tau.Neutrino said:
Geologists Finally Reveal The Forces That Forged Earth’s Sunken Continent Zealandia
Three years ago, the identification of Zealandia as a continent made global headlines.
Now, newly published results from our scientific drilling expedition reveal the largely submerged Zealandia continent, which stretches across five million square kilometres beneath the southwest Pacific Ocean, was shaped by two tectonic events.
more…
> First it was ripped away from Australia and Antarctica, and then it was carved by forces that started the Pacific Ring of Fire.
That makes sense. In the first flush of excitement over continental drift, I had thought NZ might have been ripped from east coast Australia from Sunshine coast to Tasmania, but I was quite wrong about that, it came from much further south. See 170 million years ago sketch below.
> Zealandia is mostly hidden beneath more than one kilometre of water and could be classified as more than 90 percent continental slope. This makes it a challenge to explore.
No kidding.
> Changed its name from Atlantis
I always keep feeling that I’ve struck the name “Zealandia” in another unrelated context. And I don’t mean as a companion to “Finlandia” or “Zoolandia”.
I note they don’t mention the two hotspot volcanic chains, shown below.
