By coincidence...the discovery of a lost continent that formed 60 million years ago!

Weather of Arabia - Researchers at the British University of Derby made a surprising rediscovery of a land mass more than 400 kilometers long under Davis Strait, between Canada and Greenland, while studying plate tectonic movements in the region.

The researchers pointed out that the newly discovered small continent below Davis Strait is a tectonic mass that became a separate continent, and was formed during a long period of rifting on the sea floor between Greenland and North America.

Dr. Jordan Fithian told Phys.org:

“Fracking and microcontinent formation are ongoing phenomena, and every earthquake reinforces this process.” The researchers identified the new microcontinent using crustal thickness data derived from gravity maps, seismic reflection data, and plate tectonic models.

Gravity maps contain information about rock density, depth, and source rock distribution. The team focused on how crustal anomalies were formed by reconstructing tectonic movements that continued for about 30 million years .

The researchers described the protocontinent as being larger than other microcontinents, with a thickness ranging between 17 and 23 kilometers, noting that understanding how it formed is vital for modern science.

The average thickness of a small continent is usually between 5 and 25 km.

It used mapping techniques to track changes in seafloor movements over millions of years, and identified "an isolated land with relatively thick continental crust that separated from Greenland during a recent phase of 'east-to-west' expansion along western Greenland," according to the American "Space" website. .

The researchers confirmed that Davis Strait is one of the largest known concentrations of rift structures, with specific changes in plate movement, which helps in understanding how microcontinents form.

Seafloor formation and evolution of Davis Strait

According to the study, the initial rift between Canada and Greenland began about 118 million years ago, but the sea floor did not begin to expand until 61 million years ago, leading to the formation of what is known today as Davis Strait.

About 3 million years later, scientists reported that the direction of seafloor expansion shifted from northeast to southwest, cutting off the first microcontinent of Davis.

This shift continued for about 33 million years, and stopped when Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island, which lies to the north.

The researchers expressed hope that these results could be used to understand how other protocontinents formed around the world, including the "Jan Mayen" microcontinent to the northeast of Iceland and the "Golden Drake Knoll" off the coast of Western Australia.

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Sources:

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