Remains of an ancient continent discovered under Europe

Looking at a map of the world it may seem like he wasso always. And it's not about the borders of states. Let's talk about continents and remember what we know about them. Continents are called large tracts of land (Earth's crust), which are located above the level of the oceans. There are seven continents on our planet: Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, North America, Australia and Antarctica. However, geologists have recently discovered evidence of the existence of a lost continent called Greater Andria. But how did scientists find this out and where do the “lost” continents come from?

Planet Earth

Content

• 1 How many continents exist on Earth?
• 2 How did the continents appear?
• 3 What are lost continents?
• 4 What remains of Greater Andria?

How many continents exist on Earth?

A huge amount of things are happening on our planetprocesses that are not that easy to understand, especially when it comes to huge proportions. So that everything calms down a bit in our heads, let's not forget that the surface of our planet is an alternation of land with oceans. Oceans occupy most of the Earth’s surface, while land and islands account for about 149 square kilometers, which is about 29% of the entire planet’s surface. Not so much, right?

It looks like a complete physical map of the world

No matter how strange it may seem, but geologists do notalways agree with each other regarding the number of continents on Earth. Often you can find allegations that there are six of them. The fact is that some experts do not divide North and South America into two different continents. In fact, from a geological point of view, this is indeed one continent. However, experts explain the origin of the continents in different ways.

How did the continents appear?

So, according to the theory put forward at the beginning of the twentieth centuryGerman scientist Alfred Wegener, called mobilism, the earth's crust is divided into several separate lithospheric blocks - plates, also called tectonic. The mantle, which is located under the earth's crust, is in motion. Because of this, tectonic plates move and collide with each other, thereby forming the appearance of planet Earth.

Tectonic plates are divided with each otherfault lines. Today, experts count about 15 tectonic plates. Seven of them are the largest, and their diameter totals about 16 million km. And most importantly - their shape corresponds to the shape of the continents that lie above their surface.

The supercontinent of Pangea looked like this

Thus, there are a number of assumptions aboutthat earlier on our planet there was one huge superocean and supercontinent called Pangea, which subsequently split into two large continents Laurasia (northern) and Gandwan (southern). Laurasia collapsed after 250 million years, and its parts later took on the outlines of the continents we are familiar with today: Africa, Antarctica, South America and Australia. Gandwana, respectively, formed North America, Europe and Asia. Along with the formation of continents, the formation of oceans also occurs. These processes do not stop today. You can discuss these and other amazing discoveries in our Telegram chat.

What are lost continents?

Most likely you have heard stories aboutlost continents. What is the myth of Atlantis alone - a lost continent that was swallowed by the sea along with all the inhabitants. However, there is no convincing evidence that this story, which the ancient thinker Plato described in his dialogues, is true.

That's what Big Andria looked like 140 million years ago

And yet, the lost lands are indeedexists. From time to time, experts extract from the bottom of the seas and oceans the remains of the once existing continents. So, geologists have long suspected the existence of a continent called Greater Andria. Not so long ago, experts discovered limestones and other rocks in the mountain ranges of southern Europe, testifying in favor of this hypothesis. However, recently only recently were able to prove the existence of Greater Andria.

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The fact is that the remains of Greater Andriafound to this day in different countries of Europe. The study is published in the journal Science. In the course of the study, scientists created a model with which they were able to recreate the history of a huge land mass - the very Gandwan. Experts have found that Big Adria separated from the supercontinent Gondwana about 240 million years ago.

After this happened, Big Andriaheaded north. About 140 million years ago, this continent was the size of Greenland. Later, from 120 to 100 million years ago, Greater Andria was confronted with what scientists today call Europe. As a result of the collision, Big Andria sank and was buried under the continent of Europe.

What remains of Greater Andria?

Note that the study took more than 10 years. The reason lies in the fact that there are not many traces of Greater Andria left on the surface - mostly these are small rocks scattered over more than thirty countries. It is not surprising that the study lasted so long - just imagine how much it was necessary to analyze and collect data.

What do you think, how many more missing continents will scientists discover?