Scientists discover long lost continent that had been missing for 375 years

A group of scientists were able to confirm the existence of a long lost continent that was missing for 375 years.

After decades of studies and research, geologists unearthed an eighth continent beneath the eastern side of New Zealand's South and Stewart Islands.

Zealandia - known by its Māori name Te Riu-a-Māui - is over a billion years old and we somehow managed to lose it.

If we are able to lose an entire continent then I am occasionally allowed to lose the house key.

Anyway, to understand how Zealandia was found, we need to go back to 2018.

Geologist Rose Turnbul was sorting through small grains of sand at a colleague's lab at California State University in search for a mineral called zircon.

Zircon is a common accessory to trace all kinds of igneous rocks, but particularly granite and felsic igneous rocks.

GNS Science

The study then involved crushing down 169 samples of rock and sorting the grains in order of density and magnetics, until all that remained was fine sand and zircon crystals.

After picking out thousands of zircon crystals from the samples, the group was able to move on with the study, which was later published by the Geology journal.

Until now, the oldest continental crust found on Zealandia dated back to 500 million years ago - not very old in geologic terms, it seems.

However, scientists have now been able to discover much older rocks, including bits of mantle as old as 2.7 billion years.

This newfound fragment of ancient rock may be part of the missing puzzle.

The discovery 'ticks the final box', according to Turnbull.

She told National Geographic: "We are sitting on a continent."

GNS Science

One of the authors of the study, Joshua Schwartz, is a geologist specialising in granites at California State University.

He added: "That layer on top of the Earth that we call the crust, that thin layer is where all the action for life happens.

"The continental crust is where we live, grow crops, draw water, mine minerals, and more.

"Essentially, all of our life is built on crust."

Zealandia is still considered a younger sibling to the other continents because the rocks are not as old as all the other major continents, which are said to host rocks dating back more than three billion years.

Andy Tulloch, a geologist at the New Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science, who was part of the team that found Zealandia, said: "This is an example of how something very obvious can take a while to uncover."