mauritius MAP

Another Continent?

Image Credit: Flickr User llee_wu, via CC

Just when you think that you learnt your geography chapters completely, something changes. Yes, a new micro continent named Mauritia has been found hidden under huge amounts of lava in the India ocean.

While this comes as a shock to us, a  team of international researchers – from Norway, Germany, Britain and South Africa  are suggesting that this continent detached from the super continent Gondwanaland about 60 million years ago, around the same time when Madagascar and India also drifted away from what we today call Africa.

The researchers combed the beach sands of Mauritius, and extensively tested the sand. They were able to identify zircon grains that are between 660 million and 1,970 million years old

Using the gravity fields of Earth the geologists concluded that the ancient zircons they unearthed are pieces of lost Mauritia.

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Wow! There is so much more to discover and learn!

Do you know what a geologist? is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that makes up the Earth as well as the events that have changed it.

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