Forget what you learned in elementary school geography, the Earth apparently doesn’t have seven continents at all.
From a young age, we are taught that the world consists of Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. However, new research suggests that this is not actually the case.
A new study published in the journal Gondwana researchWe are supposed to actually have only six continents.
This extraordinary claim is the result of detailed research into the geological processes that led to the breakup of Europe and North America, and into how these landmasses evolved over time.
The lead author of the research paper, Dr. Jordan Phythian, from the University of Derby, explained to Earth.comHe added that his team’s findings indicate that “the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates have not yet actually separated, as was traditionally thought to have happened 52 million years ago.”
Instead, he said, these plates continue to stretch, and are therefore still in the process of breaking apart, rather than being completely separate entities.
In other words, North America and Europe can be considered one continent, not two separate continents.
The research puts forward some radical theories about the formation of Iceland.(Visit Iceland)
The study is based on the volcanic island of Iceland, which was previously understood to have formed about 60 million years ago as a result of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
This tectonic boundary, formed by the North American and Eurasian plates, is believed to have created the hot mantle plume that eventually created the island. Earth.com Notes.
However, by carefully analyzing tectonic movements across the African continent, Fithian and his colleagues were able to challenge this theory and present a radical new idea.
They claim that Iceland, along with the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Islands (GIFR) mountain range, contains geological fragments of the European and North American tectonic plates.
This, they say, suggests that these regions are not isolated landforms, as previously thought: rather, they are interconnected parts of a larger continental structure.
Scientists have coined the term “rifted oceanic magmatic plateau” (ROMP) to describe this new geological feature, which could have fundamental implications for how we understand the formation and separation of Earth’s continents.
In fact, the importance of this discovery is so great that the magazine Phithian described it as the earth science equivalent of finding the lost city of Atlantis.
This is because he and his colleagues have discovered “parts of a lost continent submerged under the sea and kilometres of thin lava flows,” he says.
Researchers have found that the Afar region of Africa bears striking similarities to Iceland.(iStock)
Furthermore, researchers have found striking similarities between Iceland and the Afar volcanic region in Africa.
If their study is correct, it would mean that the European and North American continents are still in the process of separating, and therefore still connected.
Fithian admits that his team’s findings may surprise some, but he insists they are based on careful research.
“It is controversial to say that the Great Pacific Basin has a large amount of continental crust within it and that the European and North American tectonic plates may not have formally separated yet,” he admitted, stressing that his work supports these hypotheses.
However, the research is still in its conceptual stage, and the team aims to conduct further tests on volcanic rocks in Iceland to obtain more concrete evidence of the existence of ancient continental crust.
They also use computer simulations and plate tectonic modeling to better understand how ROMP formed.
This research comes on the heels of Fithian’s previous discovery of a hidden “protocontinent” located between Canada and Greenland.
This primordial landmass is roughly the size of England and lies below Davis Strait, directly opposite Baffin Island.
“Rifting and the formation of microcontinents are ongoing phenomena,” Fithian noted, helping scientists better understand the behavior of continents and plate tectonics.
This knowledge can help experts predict what our planet will look like in the distant future, and help determine where useful resources can be found.
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