As we begin to learn more about the ocean and what lurks within its depths, a whole darn continent down under, seems like a bit of a far-fetched find. Scientists stumbled upon a piece of ‘Gondwana’, the ancient supercontinent, below the islands of Mauritius by chance. The discovery was made while studying the mineral zircon, found in rocks that have come to the surface after a volcanic eruption. Certain stones found on Mauritius were found to be as old as three billion years, in comparison to those being studied, that were nine million years old. This proved that somewhere below Mauritius, was a landmass that could only have been a part of Gondwana.

The continent is officially known as ‘Mauritia’ and is located under Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Professor Lewis Ashwal, the leading author of the paper on this discovery, stated that this paves the way for a much better understanding of our planet’s geological history. He went on to say, “Earth is made up of two parts—continents, which are old, and oceans, which are “young”. On the continents you find rocks that are over four billion years old, but you find nothing like that in the oceans, as this is where new rocks are formed. Mauritius is an island, and there is no rock older than 9 million years old on the island.”

Following this discovery, the professor went on to say that the ocean could hold several more pieces, within its depths. When the supercontinent split due to tectonic movement, it splintered into several pieces, of varying sizes. Mauritia is only one of the many pieces that went out into the Indian Ocean. While we come across finds like this in our ocean, consider this—till date, over 90% of our ocean, still remains unexplored. To think we’ve already found a continent and innumerable species that were previously unaccounted for in a mere 5% of charted territory, is truly amazing.

Feature Image Credit—CNN