Scientists have discovered a lost continent deep in the southern arm of the Arctic Ocean, which formed 60 million years ago.
Researchers at the University of Derby in the UK have accidentally discovered a 250-mile-long landmass beneath Davis Strait, between Canada and Greenland, while studying tectonic plate movements in the area.
The newly discovered protocontinent in Davis Strait, a tectonic block that broke away from a continent, arose through “a long period of rifting and spreading of the seafloor between Greenland and North America,” the researchers explained.
The team suggested that the proto-continent broke away from Greenland after tectonics split the country and Canada in two about 118 million years ago.
Scientists have discovered a submerged microcontinent between Canada and Greenland that formed 60 million years ago. Pictured: Davis Strait where the microcontinent was discovered
Researchers at the University of Derby were reconstructing the movements of tectonic plates in the region when they found a thick crust that stretched for about 250 miles beneath Davis Strait. Pictured: The Davis Strait primordial microcontinent lies underwater in Davis Strait
“The rifting and formation of microcontinents is a very ongoing phenomenon – with each earthquake we may be breaking off the next microcontinent,” said Dr. Jordan Fithian. Phys.org.
“The goal of our work is to understand its composition well enough to predict this future evolution.”
The researchers were able to identify the new microcontinent using a combination of crustal thickness data from gravity maps, seismic reflection data, and plate tectonic modeling.
Gravity maps contain information about the density of rocks and the depth and distribution of the anomaly source rocks.
The team focused on how the crustal anomaly formed by creating a reconstruction of tectonic movements that took place over about 30 million years.
Scientists described the protocontinent as larger than other microcontinents, measuring between 11 and 14 miles thick, and said understanding how it formed is vital to ongoing science today.
The average thickness of the microcontinent is usually between three and fifteen miles.
Mapping techniques tracked how seafloor movements changed over millions of years and identified “an isolated area of relatively thick continental crust that broke away from Greenland during a new phase of climate change.” [the east to west] “Extension along western Greenland,” according to Stady.
Davis Strait is one of the largest known clusters of rift structures with well-defined changes in plate motion that could help understand how microcontinents form, researchers said.
The protocontinents are part of the continental lithosphere, a section of the Earth’s outer crust that is divided into several tectonic plates – slabs of rock.
There is a semi-liquid layer of rock located 50 to 120 miles below the Earth’s surface, which heats up and then melts, causing the rock to flow.
Movement along tectonic plates causes them to rub against each other over millions of years, leading to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
When this happens, the landmass will separate from the supercontinents, creating its own protocontinent.
The protocontinents are part of the continental lithosphere, which is part of the Earth’s outer crust that is divided into several tectonic plates – slabs of rock. Pictured: Tectonic plates moving over millions of years
The research team used maps created from gravity and seismic reflection data that show images of the Earth’s interior using sound waves to determine the age and location of fault lines. Pictured: An overview of the tectonic plates in Davis Strait
The initial rift between Canada and Greenland began about 118 million years ago, but the seafloor did not begin spreading until 61 million years ago to form what is now Davis Strait.
About three million years later, scientists reported that seafloor spreading shifted from northeast-southwest to north-south, resulting in the initial Davis Strait rift.
The shift continued for about 33 million years and only stopped when Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island to the north.
The researchers said they hope their findings will be used to understand how other protocontinents around the world formed, including the Jan Mayen microcontinent northeast of Iceland and the Golden Drake off the coast of Western Australia.
“The rifting and formation of microcontinents is a very ongoing phenomenon – with each earthquake we may be breaking off the next microcontinent,” Fithian said. Phys.org.
“The goal of our work is to understand its composition well enough to predict this future evolution.”