Zealandia: Eight is great

New Zealand Peaks     (Public Domain)

Just as everyone knew there were nine planets, everyone knows there are seven continents.  Everyone, that is, except Nick Mortimer and his crew.

Mortimer, lead author of a paper titled “Zealandia: Earth’s Hidden Continent” (guess where this is going), claims that 1.74 million square miles of mostly submerged land is actually an eighth continent.

This land mass, which peaks “above the ocean surface in the form of New Zealand and New Caledonia,” stands high “above the ocean crust.”  Mortimer states that if the ocean were to suddenly drain, the status of this “continent” would be obvious to all (but a few flat-earthers).

So what constitutes a continent?  Mortimer lists three qualities:  “high elevation compared to the ocean crust,” “a crust thicker than ocean crust,” and BIG (size apparently does sometimes matter).

He also contends that the dramatic break-up between Zealandia and Australia occurred “about 80 million years ago.”  Zealandia then sank into a deep depression, and has hardly been seen since.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-claim-theyve-found-a-massive-lost-continent/ar-AAn5qpf?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=BHEA000

Copyright February 21, 2017 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved