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Beneath the waves in the southwest Pacific Ocean lies a mostly hidden realm — dubbed Zealandia — that deserves to be called a continent, geologists say.
Geophysical data suggest that a region spanning 5 million square kilometres, which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia, is a single, intact piece of continental crust and is geologically separate from Australia, a team of scientists from New Zealand, Australia and New Caledonia argue in the March/April issue of GSA Today. (see 'Hidden crust' [Ed. Note: this refers to a map in source article.])
"If you could pull the plug on the world's oceans, then Zealandia would probably long ago have been recognized as a continent," says team leader Nick Mortimer, a geologist at GNS Science in Dunedin, New Zealand.
However, there is no international body in charge of designating official continents, and so the researchers must hope that enough of their colleagues agree to recognize the landmass. Otherwise, their proposal could remain more of a theoretical wish than a radical reshaping of what every child has to learn in geography class.
Mortimer, N. et al. GSA Today http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GSATG321A.1 (2017).
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday February 19 2017, @05:44PM
If you could somehow pull the plug on the world's oceans without killing off life as we know it, the word "continent" ("Land Sticking Up Out Of The Water") would suddenly have no geological meaning [ddns.net]. As such, "Zealandia" would probably not be subject to a rush to classify it as a continent, it being contiguous with the rest of the One Single Landmass and all. Perhaps a sheep-herding province of Pangaea?
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday February 20 2017, @10:38AM
The picture to which you linked shows some very distinct plateaus (north and south America) on an otherwise featureless planet. Thus, I suspect that the inhabitants of such a world would come up for a word describing such plateaus. Zealandia might even be one of them.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday February 20 2017, @11:48AM
This reminds me of when people say that Everest is not the world's highest mountain. They claim that the largest mountain actually starts under water (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Kea). But surely you can claim that Mount Everest, too, starts under water, from that same spot, or from the base of the Mariana trench. This would make it not only the tallest, but broadest mountain on the planet!