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posted by on Thursday February 09 2017, @01:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the justified-and-ancient dept.

A huge amount of debris has been discovered near the Great Barrier Reef:

Scientists have discovered evidence of a massive ancient undersea landslide next to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The Gloria Knolls Slide is at least 300,000 years old and 32 cubic km in volume, or 30 times the size of Uluru.

The landslide could also have triggered a large tsunami, said the international team behind the find. The scientists said debris from the landslide, found as deep as 1,350m (4,430ft) below the sea, also provided clues about hidden marine life. The team made the discovery while conducting three-dimensional mapping of ancient reefs in the Queensland Trough, a vast basin adjoining the Great Barrier Reef.

Scientists have reported the discovery of rocks from a "lost continent":

The lost continent of Mauritia likely spanned a great swathe of the Indian Ocean before it was torn apart by indomitable geologic forces and plunged into the sea. Now, a good chunk of it may have been found.

In 2015, researchers visited the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar, to study volcanic rocks. While there, they unearthed something unexpected. Embedded in the rocks were ancient crystals, dated up to three billion years old—300 times older than the island's young volcanic surface. Rocks this old come from Earth's continents, but there aren't any continents around Mauritius. It's surrounded by boundless sea in all directions. There was just one place left for the researchers to look—down. Their findings, published [open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14086] [DX] in the journal Nature Communications, suggest that the curious crystals came from a long-forgotten place buried well beneath the island.


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  • (Score: 2) by arslan on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:21AM

    by arslan (3462) on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:21AM (#464861)

    Too bad there's no mod for both Informative and Funny :)

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2