The sunken island in Australia is the result of the change of the supercontinent Gondwana

Researchers from the University of Sydney, Macquarie University and University of Tasmania, Australia, led a group of international researchers who discovered two sunken islands (which were once part of the supercontinent Gondwana ),nearly the size of Tasmania, in the vast waters of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

Scientists (on the southern survey ship CSIRO) discovered sunken islands during the detailed description of the seabed and dredging stone samples from the steep banks of two underground islands. , at a depth of more than 1.5 km.

"The sunken islands were discovered during a flat-top expedition, which reveals that these sunken islands were once above sea level before being submerged gradually," said Dr. Whittaker.

In the process of collecting hundreds of rocks at a depth of more than 1.5 km from the sea, geologists have discovered that these islands once existed on the sea (due to the acquisition of green rocks). sites such as gonad stones, granite and sandstone contain fossils instead of basalt.

"The data collected during this trip can dramatically change our understanding of how India, Australia and Antarctica abruptly separate from the Gondwana supercontinent," said Joanne Whittaker, PhD. interned at the Department of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Australia.

During the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth (more than 130 million years ago), India was adjacent to Western Australia, when India began to separate from Australia, these islands. formed as part of the final connection between the two continents.

In the end these islands, called "micro-continents" by scientists, were separated from large areas and trapped in the Indian Ocean, thousands of kilometers away from the coast. Australia and India.

"A detailed analysis of the dredged rock on the journey will reveal to us how long the island is separated from the Gondwana supercontinent," said Dr. Williams.

"Preliminary analysis of the data we have collected, may cause us to reconsider the entire story of geological tectonics for the entire eastern Indian Ocean" , according to Tien. Dr. Whittaker.

Southern survey ship CSIRO, (this is a national maritime research vehicle) is owned and managed by the National Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, funded by the Australian government.