In a major yet surprising turn of events, geoscientists have uncovered a continent that had been hidden in plain sight for almost 375 years.
As per multiple outlets, there has been speculation for so long about the existence of a continent named Zealandia, or Te Riu-a-Māui in the Māori language.
Zealandia, covering 1.89 million square miles was once a part of the supercontinent Gondwana, which included most of Western Antarctica and Eastern Australia over 500 million years ago.
Sources further revealed that Zealandia was first discovered in 1642 by Dutch businessman and sailor Abel Tasman, who was eager to find the “Great Southern Continent.”
Although Tasman failed to discover the new land, he founded the local Māori.
It wasn’t until 2017 that geologists realized the fact that the continent had been right in front of them all this time.
Scientists confirmed the existence of Zealandia noting that it began to break away from Gondwana, though the reason behind the process remains unclear.
It is pertinent to note that most of the newly identified continent is underwater and has been used by geologists at the Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science to understand how something “seemingly obvious” can take time to uncover.
