Did you know that Earth used to have continents that no longer exist today? Millions of years ago, there were massive landmasses that have since disappeared, either sinking beneath the ocean or breaking apart to form new continents. One of these lost continents is called Zealandia, most of which is now submerged under the Pacific Ocean! There’s also a famous one called Gondwana, which eventually split into Africa, South America, Australia, and Antarctica. These changes happen because of plate tectonics, where Earth’s crust moves over time. It’s like a giant puzzle that keeps shifting, and we’re still discovering pieces of this ancient history! Credit: Greater Adria: By Douwe J.J. van Hinsbergen, Trond H. Torsvik, Stefan M. Schmid, Liviu C. Maţenco, Marco Maffione, Reinoud L.M. Vissers, Derya Gürer, and Wim Spakman - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X19302230, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85330050 Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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00:007. Do you know how many continents there are on Earth? That's an easy one, seven. But
00:07wait a second, aren't Europe and Asia one large continent, Eurasia? It looks so when
00:12you look at the world map. Well, scientists think differently. They don't just look
00:17at bodies of land sticking out of the sea. Geoscientists study the types of rock that
00:22continents are made from. When you see the world from their perspective, the number of
00:26continents actually increases. Yes, they are not a myth. Lost continents exist. Or
00:33at least they used to. They are hiding under other landmasses. Peekaboo! Researchers have
00:39recently discovered one continent just like that. It's called Greater Adria. Sound familiar?
00:45Yes, it has something to do with the Adriatic Sea. This lost continent is completely buried
00:51under Europe. It collided with Europe and started to sink under it a long time ago.
00:56Today it lies beneath Italy, Greece, and the Baltics. Its size and even shape match
01:02that of Greenland, the world's largest island. But how did geoscientists find Greater Adria?
01:08It's no longer visible, but it left some clues. Parts of it were embedded in the Alps.
01:14Other chunks were incorporated into present-day Italy and Croatia, on the other side of the
01:19Adriatic Sea. Limestone rocks from the former continent started to change once they were
01:25under the European landmass. Tremendous heat and pressure, spread over tens of millions
01:30of years, changed their structure. Out goes the limestone, in comes the marble. All the
01:36Greek and Roman temples you admired on your summer vacation were constructed using this
01:41marble. It was sort of a going-away gift from a long-lost continent.
01:48Greater Adria camouflaged itself well for thousands of years. But other lost continents
01:53were hiding in plain sight. Have you heard of Earth's eighth continent, Zealandia?
01:59Probably not, because it sits under the surface of the Pacific Ocean. 95% of Zealandia is
02:05now underwater. Can you guess where exactly? Its name is a good hint – under New Zealand.
02:12If you open Google Maps, you can see its outline. Look for a lighter shade of blue in the ocean.
02:17It should stretch from New Caledonia to New Zealand. This bump in the ocean floor used
02:22to be above sea level. It was about two-thirds of Australia and more than twice the landmass
02:28of Greater Adria in size. We can spot Zealandia today because it hasn't sunk too low. And
02:35that's the best way to discover other lost continents.
02:38Imagine the Earth without the oceans. The bottom of the sea isn't flat. There are
02:43mountains and trenches. You could put Mount Everest in the deepest of them, and there
02:47would still be 7,000 feet between it and sea level. This trench got so deep because
02:53of a geological process called subduction. The Pacific Plate got under the Philippine
02:59Plate. Earth's crust is made out of those plates that float in a sea of molten rock.
03:05Then they bump into each other, one goes down while the other one rises. That's how Greater
03:10Adria ended up under the European continent. Our planet is constantly on the go. We don't
03:17miss this process because it happens deep beneath our feet.
03:20120 million years ago, Australia and Antarctica were a single piece of land. Yep, the coldest
03:27and one of the hottest places on Earth were once the same territory. Antarctica said goodbye
03:33to Australia, but it didn't leave empty-handed. Today, there is an oceanic plateau in the
03:39Indian Ocean. The word plateau comes from French, and it means elevated flatland. And
03:45the name of this land sounds like the title of a Hollywood movie, Broken Ridge. Long ago,
03:51it was connected to another lost continent. Scientists believe that it made a land bridge
03:56between India and Antarctica. What was this land like? The answer possibly lies in a tiny
04:03archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean. These islands are all that is left of an ancient
04:09landmass. They have a cold climate. The islands feature glaciers because they're so close
04:14to Antarctica. But in the past, the climate must've been temperate with plenty of rainfall.
04:20The animals and plants would've been similar to those that we find in tropical regions
04:24today. The lost continent's landscape probably resembled that of New Zealand.
04:31While we're in the area, can you guess which continent the island state of Madagascar once
04:36belonged to? If you guessed Africa, sorry, you were wrong. Hey, don't feel bad. Look
04:42up and to the right of the map. The correct answer is India. Some 120 million years ago
04:48– I wasn't around then – India separated from the African continent and went northeast.
04:54Madagascar wasn't quick enough and ended up as an island off the southeast coast of
04:58Africa. But there is evidence of an even greater landmass – the lost continent of Mauritia.
05:06Scientists found traces of the ancient landmass under the island of Mauritius. Today, it's
05:11a tourist hotspot. But millions of years ago, it was a real hotspot. Volcanoes and
05:17all. That's how scientists were able to retrace the steps of Mauritia. They found
05:22a mineral that exists in rocks, which lava spews out after an eruption. The long-lost
05:28land once covered the area from Mauritius to the west coast of India. Imagine if that
05:33land existed today. It would form a great mix of Indian and African cultures. The local
05:38dishes would definitely be spicy!
05:42Speaking of spicy, have you had Indonesian food recently? Just 50,000 years ago, Southeast
05:48Asia looked much different. There was no Sumatra, Borneo, Java, or even Australia. Just Sunda
05:55and Saul – two continental masses that were divided by a deep-water trench. You had the
06:00extension of mainland Southeast Asia on one side, and the Greater Australia on the other.
06:07Back then, Bali stood at the southernmost tip of Asia.
06:11Biologists were among the first scientists to notice the split. Species developed differently
06:16on Sunda and Saul. That's why Australia has unique animals, such as the kangaroo,
06:22wombat, and platypus. And did you know that a giant kangaroo once roamed the island of
06:28New Guinea? That's because up until the end of the last age, there was a land bridge
06:33to Australia. Today, the two islands are separated by the Torres Strait, but it's
06:38quite shallow – less than 65 feet. It's a reminder that this was once a single landmass
06:44called Saul.
06:46Another ocean strait that isn't too deep separates Asia from North America. The Bering
06:51Strait sits today in the place of Beringia. This ancient landmass wasn't that big. It
06:57stretched 1,000 miles from north to south. That's just a third of the driving distance
07:01from Los Angeles to New York.
07:04Beringia was important for another reason. During the Ice Ages, it connected the whole
07:08world. Water levels were 300 feet lower than they are today. If they went even lower, you
07:14could walk from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa all the way to Cape Horn in South America.
07:21Talk about the ultimate backpacking route!
07:25Today you can hop on an airplane and fly to pretty much any place on the globe. The world
07:30has never seemed smaller, has it? Well, it has. Some 300-200 million years ago, we were
07:36all one world, literally. Pangaea was a supercontinent that included all of the continents. Its name
07:44is in Greek, and it simply means All Earth. But Pangaea started to crack up. The biggest
07:50gap formed between the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other. Seawater
07:56soon started pouring in, and that's how we got the Atlantic Ocean.
08:00This process is by no means over. While you are watching this video, North America is
08:06drifting further and further away from Europe at the rate of 1 inch per year. Doesn't
08:12seem much when compared to the average human lifespan, but in the end, all the continents
08:17will reconnect with each other, forming a supercontinent. And it wouldn't be the
08:22first time in Earth history that this happens. Honestly, I'm not gonna wait around for that.