Newzealandia

*8th continent*??😯

🔖 *Zealandia* — or Te Riu-a-Māui, as it’s referred to in the indigenous *Māori language* — is a 2 million-square-mile (5 million square kilometres) continent east of **Australia* , beneath modern-day *New Zealand* 🇳🇿

🔖Still, the “ *lost continent* ” remains largely unknown and poorly studied due to its *Atlantean geography.* 🗺️

🔖Zealandia was classified as a “ *microcontinent* ,” as the *island of Madagascar* , until 2017.

But according to *Mortimer* , it has all the requirements to be classified as a continent.

It has *defined boundaries* ; it occupies an area of over one *million square kilometres* and is elected *above the ocean crust.*

🔖Data for the bathymetric map was provided by the *Seabed2030* project — a global effort to map the entire ocean floor by 2030.

The new maps reveal Zealandia’s bathymetry (the shape of the ocean floor) as well as its *tectonic history,* showing how *volcanism* and *tectonic motion* have shaped the continent over millions of years.

*It's Formation* 🌏

🔖 *Gondwana* formed when Earth's ancient supercontinent, *Pangea, split into two fragments* .

🔖 *Laurasia* in the north became *Europe, Asia, and North America* .

🔖Gondwana in the south dispersed to form modern-day *Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Australia.*

🔖Geologic forces continued to rearrange these land masses, and *Zealandia* was forced under the waves about 30 million to 50 million years after it broke off *Gondwana* as the largest tectonic plate — the *Pacific Plate —* slowly subducted beneath it.🏝️