Chunk of an ancient supercontinent discovered under New Zealand
Maya Wei-Haas 31 mins ago
As the California heat blazed outside in the summer of 2018, Rose Turnbull sat in the cool confines of a windowless basement sorting through grains of fine sand. A geologist based in New Zealand, Turnbull was in a colleague’s lab at California State University, Northridge, trying to find tiny crystals of zircon, which she hoped would help unravel secrets of the mysterious eighth continent of Zealandia, also known by its Māori name Te Riu-a-Māui.
© Photograph Westend61 GmbH, Alamy Stock Photo New Zealand, South Island, Fjordland National Park, Aerial view of Milford Sound
The task required a practiced hand and a bit of elbow grease—or rather, nose grease. Turnbull demonstrates over Zoom, raising the closed tweezers to the outside of her nose to pick up a bit of oil, which prevents the grains from zinging across the room when plucked.
The crystals hailed from rocks that were collected from the islands of New Zealand, which are among the few bits of Zealandia's nearly two million square miles that poke above the sea. Only recently recognized by scientists, Zealandia is the most submerged, thinnest, and youngest continent yet found. Turnbull, who works at the research and consulting group GNS Science in New Zealand, and her colleagues wanted to know more about the processes that shaped this unusual landmass.
What they found surprised them: Concealed beneath the eastern side of New Zealand's South and Stewart Islands lingers a chunk of a billion-year-old supercontinent. The discovery suggests Zealandia may not be as young as they once thought, which may bolster the case for its continental status.
"Continents are sort of like icebergs," says study author Keith Klepeis, a structural geologist at the University of Vermont. "What you see at the surface is not really the full extent of the beast."
More:
https://www.microsoftnewskids.com/en-us/kids/science/chunk-of-an-ancient-supercontinent-discovered-under-new-zealand/ar-AAMsUYt?li=BBnb7Kz
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