What happened to Earth’s ‘missing continent’ scientists discovered after nearly 400 years

Depending on who you ask, there's actually eight continents that dominate our planet.

We have Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, and Zealandia (or 'Te Riu-a-Māui' in the Māori language), although the latter was only properly discovered by geologists eight years ago - four centuries after a Dutch explorer's failed attempts.

But what happened to Earth's missing landscape - nicknamed the 'Great Southern Continent' - which fused Western Antarctica with Eastern Australia?

Well, it's all a bit Atlantean.

It's fully mapped out (GNS Science)

Back in 1642, Abel Tasman of the Dutch East India Company - whom the Aussie state of Tasmania was named after - set sail from Indonesia to confirm the existence of this elusive continent that had experts banging their heads against the wall for many years.

Eventually reaching the New Zealand shoreline, Tasman encountered the native Māori, who were less than pleased with the sight of this European interloper and his men.

So much so, they murdered four of his fellow sailors, forcing the shocked navigator to flee the land and return home without any proof of the eighth continent to unveil to the world. Tasman would pass away in October 1659, aged 56.

400 years went by before the mystery of this ghost supercontinent was solved.

Zealandia is thought to have once belonged to a supercontinent called Gondwana before pulling away (GNS Science)

In 2017, GNS Science of the New Zealand Crown Research Institute announced its discovery of Zealandia, which stretches roughly 1.89 million square miles and lies mostly underwater.

Over 500 million years ago, Zealandia was part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana before it began to 'pull away' for reasons geologists still don't really understand. 94 percent of its surface would then become concealed by the waves of the sea.

One of its discoverers was Andy Tulloch, who commented: "This is an example of how something very obvious can take a while to uncover."

Meanwhile, the study's leader Nick Mortimer joked that it was 'kind of cool' how Zealandia had taken so long to rear its head for the world again, while explaining: "If you think about it, every continent on the planet has different countries on it, [but] there are only three territories on Zealandia."

Here's your eighth continent (GNS Science)

In their report from April 2017, the Geological Society of America wrote: "As well as being the seventh largest geological continent, Zealandia is the youngest, thinnest, and most submerged.

"The scientific value of classifying Zealandia as a continent is much more than just an extra name on a list.

"That a continent can be so submerged yet unfragmented makes it a useful and thought-provoking geodynamic end member in exploring the cohesion and breakup of continental crust."