'Lost Continent' Rises Again With New Expedition (smithsonianmag.com)

Tens of millions of years after it disappeared under the waters of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have completed the first explorations of what some scientists are calling a hidden continent. From a report: During a two-month ocean voyage this summer, a team of more than 30 scientists from 12 countries explored the submerged landmass of Zealandia on an advanced research vessel and collected samples from the seabed. Scientists were able to drill into the ocean floor at depths of more than 4,000 feet, collecting more than 8,000 feet of sediment cores that provides a window into 70 million years of geologic history, reports Georgie Burgess for ABC News. More than 8,000 fossils from hundreds of species were also collected in the drilling, giving scientists a glimpse at terrestrial life that lived tens of millions of years ago in the area. "The discovery of microscopic shells of organisms that lived in warm shallow seas, and of spores and pollen from land plants, reveal that the geography and climate of Zealandia were dramatically different in the past," expedition leader Gerald Dickens said in a statement. While more than 90 percent of Zealandia is now submerged under more than a kilometer (two-thirds of a mile) of water, when it was above the surface, it likely provided a path that many land animals and plants could have used to spread across the South Pacific, notes Naaman Zhou of the Guardian.

Comments

Re:Hockey stick?

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to understand the difference between anthropogenic climate change and natural climate change. Sometimes, through unavoidable natural disasters such as volcanism or massive strikes from outer space, atmospheric CO2 is increased resulting in huge increases in temperature and tectonic upheaval. Other times, it is from people releasing the same gas artificially into the air as is happening right now. It all ends the same way - massive extinctions, end Permian dying, the sinking of the lost continent - take your pic, their all horrible for the earth and take millions of years to recover from (if at all). It's a sad thing to have as humanity's epitaph. But hey, as long as you keep telling yourself its not happening, we're all good, right?

It already had a name..

[myowntrueself]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

this is a re-discovery!