As was studied A continent is one of Earth’s seven main divisions of land. The continents are, from largest to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. But getting into the depth of a meaningful definition of the continent, geologists presume that A continent is a large continuous mass of land conventionally regarded as a collective region. Occasionally Europe and Asia are considered one continent called Eurasia. Continents loosely correlate with the positions oftectonic plates. Interestingly, Geologists theorize that continents move. This theory is called plate tectonics, which holds that the lithosphere, the outermost layer of Earth (where continents are), lies on top of a semi fluid layer of partially molten magma called the as thenosphere. Convection from the decay of elements in the causes and to move. Throughout my school life, I have been educated about the continents of the world. My teachers acknowledge me just as everyone else and the textbook claims, that there are 7 continents. And this wasn’t a dilemma but the approach of reading the belonging textbooks. After matriculation I found current research on the internet, which professthere might be an eighth. The 8thcontinentin the world has just been discovered, and it might blow my mind as it was a peculiar arrival notion of topology. I remember the day when I confused my geography teacher once, she continuously asks me a question regarding the percentage abundance of water. Most of my class fellows shout straightforwardly that About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water, and 3% of the earth’s water is fresh. 2.5% of the earth’s freshwater is unavailable: locked up in glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere, and soil, 0.5% of the earth’s water is available fresh water, and the remaining 29% is land. But my silence didn’t manifest of lacking knowledge but the curse of brainstorming that allows me to ask the teacher that existence of land beneath the water’s surface.Everyone in the classroom was shocked as my question at that time was genuine According to geography there is more water than land, then what is there beneath water bodies (land isn’t it)? Thank to me, because of this curiosity of asking questions, I learn different concepts day by day. After few days I understood that Land is a solid surface on the Earth that is not permanently covered by water.
Know More About the 8th Continent Zealandia: Zealandia is a long, narrow microcontinent landmass that is mostly submerged in the South Pacific Ocean and has broken off from the supercontinent Gondwana between 79 million and 83 million years ago.There has been a lot of relevant argument going around regarding the continent and whether it should be called that or not. We all are familiar that the certain definition of the word ‘continent’ is pretty dubious. However, according to scientists, a continent is supposed to have definite boundaries (either imaginary but distinct)/wh. are clearly defined, and it should occupy more than 1 million square kilometers of area. A continent should also be heightened or elevated above the surrounding crust of the ocean and should have a continental crust that is thicker than that of the oceanic crustto maintain distinct plate margins. The Glossary of Geology defines a continent as “one of the Earth’s major land masses, including both dry land and continental shelves” (Neuendorf et al., 2005). It is generally agreed that continents have all the following attributes: (1) high elevation relative to regions floored by oceanic crust;
(2) a broad range of siliceous igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks;
(3) thicker crust and lower seismic velocity structure than oceanic crustal regions; And (4) well-defined limits around a large enough area to be considered a continent rather than a microcontinent or continental fragment.
The first three points are defining elements of continental crust and are explained in many geoscience textbooks and reviews (e.g., Holmes, 1965; Christensen and Mooney, 1995; Levander et al., 2005; Kearey et al., 2009; Condie, 2015). The thing about Zealandia is that it confronts all the significant criteria that have been listed by the scientists. Also, if you were to sift the entire ocean out, this particular mass of land would stand out as a proper plateau above the ocean floor. There was an initial problem with Zealandia, that The oldest rock and crust ever samples from this mass of land were just about 500 million years ago. This can be seen as an opposition to the crusts of other continents, which dates to roughly 1 billion years old. However, according to the new studies, the details are to be changed. A recent study was published by the GeoScienceWorld, and it found that the part of the 8th missing continent, Zealandia, which was submerged under the water, is basically twice as big as scientists believed once. Hence, the study provided a final tick on this part of the land. In 2017, GNS Science studied a lesser-known area named Zealandia. Their research convinces them that Zealandia qualifies as an eighth continent. Zealandia is about half the size of Australia, but only 7 percent of it is above sea level. Most of that terrestrial land makes up the two large islands of the country of New Zealand, the North Island and the South Island. Stewart Island, just south of the South Island, and many smaller islets are also a part of Zealandia. New Caledonia, a collection of islands governed by France, makes up the northern tip of Zealandia.
(The author a Student of Science and Mathematics is presently pursuing Engineering . The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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