It took scientists 375 years to discover the world's eighth continent.
According to BBC, in 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman believed that there was a large continent in the Southern Hemisphere and was determined to find it.
On 14 August 1642, Tasman set sail from his company headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia, with two small ships, heading west, then east, stopping in New Zealand's South Island. However, Tasman's first encounter with the local Māori, who were believed to have settled there centuries earlier, did not go smoothly. Some of the boatmen rammed a small boat carrying messages between Dutch ships, killing four Europeans.
Mr. Tasman named the site of the incident Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay and returned home a few weeks later without setting foot on the new land. But Mr. Tasman believed that he had discovered the great continent to the south.
Zealandia continent seen from satellite. (Photo: GNS Science).
Some 375 years later, in 2017, a team of geologists announced the discovery of Zealandia (Te Riu-a-Māui in the Māori language) . It is a continent measuring 4.9 million square kilometres , or six times the size of Madagascar. And Mr Tasman was right to believe there was a lost continent.
Although world encyclopedias, maps and search engines claim that there are only 7 continents, the above group of geologists claims that this is not true, instead there are 8 continents. Notably, Zealandia has 94% of its area under water in the Pacific Ocean , including the islands of New Caledonia, South New Zealand and North New Zealand.
"This is proof that it takes a while to discover something that clearly exists," said one of the geologists, Andy Tulloch, from the GNS Science Institute in New Zealand.
But the announcement of the discovery of a new continent is just the beginning. More than four years on, Zealandia remains a mystery, and its secrets are hidden 2 kilometers below the surface. Questions such as: How did it form? What once lived on the continent? How long has it been underwater?
Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana , which formed about 550 million years ago and essentially included all the land in the Southern Hemisphere. It occupied a corner in the east, bordering several other areas, including half of West Antarctica and all of eastern Australia. About 105 million years ago, through an unknown process, Zealandia was pulled apart, according to geologist Tulloch.
