Earth Has a Hidden 8th Continent

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Sat Feb 18, 2017, 02:34 AM - Edit history (2)

Earth Has a Hidden 8th Continent
By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | February 17, 2017 12:46pm ET




Based on geological definitions of a continent, the Earth actually has a lost
eighth continent, known as Zealandia. Most of this continent is submerged
beneath the sea, while a tiny sliver, including New Zealand, is above the
water.
Credit: GSA Today 2017




Earth has eight continents, and world maps should reflect this, geologists say.

The eighth, a lost continent called Zealandia, isn't a huge landmass that geographers have somehow missed. Rather, only small bits — including New Zealand, New Caledonia and a few other specks of land in the vast Pacific Ocean — are above sea level. The rest of this continent lies beneath the waves, a new study suggests

"I hope Zealandia will now start to appear on world maps which show the other continents," said Nick Mortimer, a geologist with GNS Science in Dunedin, New Zealand. "There is an extra one, and it is as real as all the others." [Photos: The World's Weirdest Geological Formations]

Decades of evidence

The new study synthesizes decades of evidence for a hidden continent lying beneath the ocean surrounding New Zealand. The first line of evidence comes simply from looking at the ocean floor around New Zealand: The continental shelves of Zealandia lie at a depth of about 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) below sea level, while the nearby oceanic crust is about 9,800 feet (3,000 m) below that, Mortimer said. Just like other continents, Zealandia has a huge range in altitude, from the sub-ocean depths to Aoraki/Mount Cook at 12,217 feet (3,724 m) above sea level.

The second line of evidence supporting Zealandia's designation as a separate continent comes from extensive study of the rocks beneath the ocean. Over the past 20 years, geologists have set sail on ships to dredge rocks from the seafloor. Unlike the nearby oceanic crust, which is made up of basaltic rocks from the fairly recent geologic past, the crust surrounding New Zealand is composed of a variety of different rock types, including granite, limestone and sandstone, some of which are incredibly ancient. That is typical of continental crust, the researchers reported in the March/April issue of the journal GSA Today.

More:
http://www.livescience.com/57927-new-zealand-part-of-eighth-continent.html?utm_source=notification

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Wrong text for this title .... nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. Finally, I caught it. Thank you for your observation. Very sorry to have bungled. n/t

[In_The_Wind]

2. Decades of evidence

The new study synthesizes decades of evidence for a hidden continent lying beneath the ocean surrounding New Zealand. The first line of evidence comes simply from looking at the ocean floor around New Zealand: The continental shelves of Zealandia lie at a depth of about 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) below sea level, while the nearby oceanic crust is about 9,800 feet (3,000 m) below that, Mortimer said. Just like other continents, Zealandia has a huge range in altitude, from the sub-ocean depths to Aoraki/Mount Cook at 12,217 feet (3,724 m) above sea level.

The second line of evidence supporting Zealandia's designation as a separate continent comes from extensive study of the rocks beneath the ocean. Over the past 20 years, geologists have set sail on ships to dredge rocks from the seafloor. Unlike the nearby oceanic crust, which is made up of basaltic rocks from the fairly recent geologic past, the crust surrounding New Zealand is composed of a variety of different rock types, including granite, limestone and sandstone, some of which are incredibly ancient. That is typical of continental crust, the researchers reported in the March/April issue of the journal GSA Today.

Finally, scientists have shown that there's a narrow strip of oceanic crust separating the continent of Australia from the subterranean reaches of Zealandia, meaning the two are separate continents, Mortimer said.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Looks like it's way down, below the ocean

where I wanna be. She may be.

(yes, I know it's a very silly song that has nothing to do with this story. But I still like it.)

[democratisphere]

5. Great article and information.

8th Continent is very interesting. Thanks for detailed maps and this.

[lastlib]

6. I have long thought that the entire Pacific Ocean.....

...could be a giant impact crater, possibly from the ancient planetary collision that led to the formation of the Moon. I have absolutely no evidence to support this, it's just an idea that has bounced around in my head. I think this submerged continent might kind of fall into line with this idea.

[OxQQme]

7. lastlib, there is evidence (of sorts)

Some people feel that Zecharia Sitchin is "woo", but if you were to get a copy of his first book,
"The 12th Planet", you could find a description of just such an event.

Additionally, (not 'woo') the crust of the globe in the Pacific Basin is thinner than any where else.
As if it had been scooped off in a collision.
Gaia healing herself, by closing the 'wound', is a theoretical cause of continental drift according to
earth scientists.

The moon, though, is not the 'child' as it's not made of the same stuff as us.

I just googled 'the hammered bracelet' (a description from ancient clay tablet texts)

snip>
The Mesopotamian texts continued from here to describe how Nibiru/Marduk formed the asteroid belt out of Tiamat’s (that's this planet we live upon) lower half:

The other half of her
he set up as a screen for the skies;
Locking them together
as watchmen he stationed them. . . .
He bent Tiamat’s tail
to form the Great Band as a bracelet.

Genesis picks up the primordial tale here and describes the forming of the asteroid belt thus:
And Elohim said:
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And Elohim made the Firmament, dividing the waters which are under the Firmament from the waters which are above the Firmament.
And Elohim called the Firmament “Heaven.”
Realizing that the Hebrew word Shama’im is used to speak of Heaven or the heavens in general, the editors of Genesis went into some length to use two terms for “the Heaven” created as a result of the destruction of Tiamat.
What separated the “upper waters” from the “lower waters.” the Genesis text stresses, was the Raki’a; generally translated “Firmament,” it literally means “Hammered-out Bracelet.”

Then Genesis goes on to explain that Elohim then called the Raki’a, the so called Firmament, Shama’im, “the Heaven”—a name that in its first use in the Bible consists of the two words sham and ma’im, meaning literally “where the waters were.”
In the creation tale of Genesis, “the Heaven” was a specific celestial location, where Tiamat and her waters had been, where the asteroid belt was hammered out.

That happened, according to the Mesopotamian texts, when Nibiru/Marduk returned to the Place of Crossing—the second phase of the battle with Tiamat: “Day Two,” if you wish, as the biblical narrative does.

The ancient tale is replete with details, each of which is amazing by itself. Ancient awareness of them is so incredible that its only plausible explanation is the one offered by the Sumerians themselves—namely, that those who had come to Earth from Nibiru were the source of that knowledge. Modern astronomy has already corroborated many of these details; by doing so, it indirectly confirms the key assertions of the ancient cosmogony and astronomy: the Celestial Battle that resulted in the breakup of Tiamat, the creation of Earth and the asteroid belt, and the capture of Nibiru/Marduk into permanent orbit around our Sun.

Let us look at one aspect of the ancient tale—the “host” of satellites, or “winds,” that the “celestial gods” had. We now know that Mars has two moons, Jupiter sixteen moons and several more moonlets, Saturn twenty-one or more, Uranus as many as fifteen, Neptune eight. Until Galileo discovered with his telescope the four brightest and largest satellites of Jupiter in 1610, it was unthinkable that a celestial body could have more than one such companion—evidence Earth and its solitary Moon."<

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/genesisrevisto/genrevisit03.htm
much more at link/google

[NickB79]

9. The impact that formed the Moon would have re-liquified a substantial portion of the planet's crust

It was most likely a head-on collision so powerful it mixed the cores of both planets, and converted most of the planet's rock back to magma.

As such, there is no way the Pacific is the remains of a global impact crater.

http://www.popsci.com/more-evidence-that-early-earth-collided-head-on-with-another-planet

[shenmue]

8. Pretty neat!