Under Europe found a disappeared mainland

More than two thousand years ago, an ancient Greek scholarPlato in his dialogs “Timaeus” and “Critius” spoke of an unusual state located on an island west of the Hercules Pillars or between modern Britain and Morocco. It may seem that Plato had some problems with geography, but the latest news from the Netherlands shows the opposite. So, according to Dowe van Hinsbergen, a geologist at the University of Utrecht, there can be a huge island the size of Greenland under the Mediterranean Sea.

Under the waters of the Mediterranean Sea there can be a huge island or an ancient mainland

The ancient mainland is hiding beneath the surface of Europe

According to scientists from the Netherlands, undermodern Europe is the remains of the ancient mainland, which in scientific circles have already been called the Great Adria. Currently, it is completely buried - not under the ocean, but under southern Europe. About 140 million years ago, two continents began to collide. Greater Adria was completely destroyed in the collision process and, for the most part, sank beneath those places where Italy, Greece and the Baltic are now located.

In addition, Big Adria is not unique. New studies of the Earth's mantle show that under the oceans of our planet, a huge number of lost continents can be hidden. Thus, an analysis of ancient rocks suggests that in the past our planet was a much more geologically active place than it is now. Evidence of how life first appeared may be lost somewhere, at great depths.

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Despite the fact that lost continents are oftenare considered completely lost, in fact they are not completely lost. Like lost civilizations, they leave behind themselves traces that can be recognized if you know how to look for them. Van Hinsbergen notes that the rocks from Greater Adria were incorporated into the Alps, while its entire pieces were introduced into southern Italy and Croatia. Although most of the ancient mainland was hidden tens of miles down into the mantle of the Earth, some of its layers still continue to influence modern Europe.

Under the influence of tectonic pressure andof time, the limestone rocks of the ancient continent gradually formed marble. Plate friction between Europe and Big Adria pulled useful material back to the Earth's surface, where people were able to find it and establish production. According to Hinsbergen, this is how the marble from which ancient Roman and ancient Greek temples and pantheons were made can have its origin. In other words, the ancient Greek Plato could stand on the remains of Atlantis, which he was looking for, and not even guess about it.

Most likely, Plato had no idea what stood on the remains of the Atlantis he sought

Besides Big Adria, modern mapsthe ocean floor reveal the vast elevated area surrounding the islands of New Zealand. About two years ago, a team led by geologists from the Geological Research Company GNS Science combined ocean floor maps with surface gravity measurements and their analysis of seabed samples to show that the area near New Zealand is something much larger, than just a bump in the ocean. According to their calculations, Zealand is a single continent, accounting for approximately two-thirds the size of Australia.

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Like Greater Adria, Zealand represented fromitself is part of a huge supercontinent known as Gondwana. About 85 million years ago, a small part of the gigantic continent broke away from the total land mass and gradually stretched out and wasted, forming the modern Pacific Ring of Fire, New Zealand and New Caledonia.

Modern New Zealand

No one will ever know exactly what eventsoccurred on these early continents. Did the destruction of the ancient continents take place gradually and almost painlessly, or were accompanied by colossal natural disasters? Most likely, in this case, the first scenario may be more plausible. Be that as it may, it is precisely thanks to the movement of continents and continents that you and I can observe the modern map of our planet.