A large piece of Earth, lost about 155 million years ago, has just been found by scientists. The hidden continent, called Argoland, is believed to have separated from Australia, creating a considerable distance in geological time.
The discovery happened due to a large hole in the ocean, known as the Argo Abyssal Plain.
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In the past, the theory was that this fragmented continent could have been pulled back into the Earth's mantle, where tectonic plates collide and pull apart.
While another “lost” piece of land, Greater Adria, roughly the size of Greenland, became detached from Italy and became the mountains of southern Europe, Argoland left no trace on Asia or in Oceania.
This information was published in the scientific journal Gondwana Research last week. According to Dowe Van Hinsbergen, study co-author and professor at Utrecht University:
“If continents could sink into the mantle and disappear completely, leaving no trace geological features on the Earth's surface, we wouldn't have much of an idea of what the Earth might have been like in the past geological. It would be nearly impossible to create reliable reconstructions of ancient supercontinents and Earth's geography in past eras,” she says.
After the research, the study's lead author, Eldert Advokaat, assured that the discovery was essential to putting together the missing pieces to understand what the Earth was like.
According to him, it took more than 7 years to find the evidence necessary to “put together the puzzle”. Thus, it was established that, 250 million years ago, Argoland began to fracture and fragment, and is now in the depths of the ocean.
This discovery by researchers occurred after finding traces of Argolândia beneath some Islands Of region. This proves that the piece fragmented as it moved away, instead of moving as a “single block”.
