BIG BREAKING! New CONTINENT Discovered in Pacific Ocean
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00:00Hello friends, I am Gaurav and look at this map.
00:03What do you see here?
00:04Only New Zealand, right?
00:06Well, on 26th September 2023, one of the most reputed journals in the field of geology, Tectonic, claimed that
00:14such a huge continent named Zealandia is submerged beneath New Zealand.
00:20This continent, interestingly, is so huge that the entire Indian subcontinent
00:24which is made up of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives,
00:30is smaller than this new 8th continent.
00:33Now, obviously, this is not a small news.
00:36It is such a big news that it immediately went viral.
00:38Times of India, Hindustan Times, Economic Times, Times Now, WhyOn, NDTV, everyone is talking about it.
00:45But, one second, if such a huge landmass exists beneath New Zealand,
00:50then naturally, it won't suddenly appear, right?
00:53So, after all these years, how did it go unnoticed by us?
00:57And why are all these news articles saying that this continent has been unknown for the last 375 years?
01:04Do you think that New Zealand could be behind this?
01:07Because that country, New Zealand, for years, through this Zealandia,
01:11wanted to take over a large part of the ocean resources.
01:15Actually, friends, in the year 1982, the United Nations passed a law.
01:19United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
01:22Under this law, the area of the country, which is 400 km away from its coastline,
01:28and the natural resources and minerals present there will be fully controlled.
01:32So, from the perspective of New Zealand, if the submerged land beneath it proves to be a continent,
01:37then its territory will be 6 times larger.
01:40This means that 6 times more natural resources and minerals come under their control.
01:46Now, obviously, if any country has 6 times more resources, then it must have had an impact.
01:52Obviously, economic growth will also increase by 6 times.
01:55And this opportunity was very promising for New Zealand, of course.
01:58Because of this, the chapter of the Lost Continent hidden beneath New Zealand opened again.
02:03And to study this, the New Zealand government called many international geologists
02:08to do a detailed research,
02:10in which the goal was to prove this large submerged landmass to be a continent.
02:15After this, all these researchers conducted a study together,
02:19and when the results came to the public, no one believed it.
02:23It was found that surprisingly, the composition of the rocks of the land beneath New Zealand
02:30was more matching to the composition of a continent than any oceanic bed.
02:35Meaning, the bottom of the ocean is mostly made of volcanic basalt rock,
02:39and the continents are mainly made of granite rock.
02:42Yet, the submerged landmass found beneath New Zealand in the ocean
02:46was made of landmass continents such as granite rock.
02:49Meaning, friends, possibly, the landmass submerged beneath New Zealand
02:54could have been a confirmed 8th continent.
02:57Even possibly, it could have been a part of the Pangaea supercontinent at some point.
03:02And that's why the name of this landmass hidden beneath New Zealand became Zealandia.
03:08But friends, let's hold on a little over here.
03:10If this 8th continent was already confirmed in 1982,
03:14then why wasn't it included in our geography books till now?
03:18And why is it unknown in the news since 375 years?
03:22Well friends, the thing is, you will only include a map in your books
03:27when there is a precise mapping of its boundaries through the currently accepted method, i.e. satellites.
03:34And this was exactly what was missing in the case of Zealandia.
03:38And that's why, after postponing it for many years,
03:40in the year 2017, its official satellite mapping was finally started.
03:45The final result of which came on 12th September 2023.
03:49And the existence of the Zealandia continent was finally confirmed.
03:54So, so far you have understood the story so much, what was the story behind it.
03:59But, a major question is still hanging here.
04:03What happened with such a large piece of land that it was completely submerged in water,
04:10that only its tip, New Zealand, is above the sea today, like a country.
04:15Actually, according to geologists, there used to be only one big supercontinent on earth, named Pangaea.
04:21But due to the tectonic activities that were going on about 200 million years ago,
04:26this supercontinent split into two new continents, Laurasia and Gondwana.
04:30Now, out of this, Laurasia shifted towards the north.
04:33And moving forward, it split into northern continents like Asia, Europe and America.
04:38And Gondwana went towards the south, which again formed all the southern continents.
04:43Out of these southern continents, about 170 million years ago, Africa separated from Gondwana.
04:50And then came the turn of Antarctica and Australia.
04:53And from this, finally, about 40 million years ago, when the Indian subcontinent also separated,
04:59then all the modern-day continents were able to come to their current positions.
05:05Except, something was just missing till here.
05:08At that time, the most important link was missing from all these geologists.
05:13In their theory of becoming continents from this supercontinent,
05:16they only included the continents that were visible above the sea.
05:20While in reality, along with Australia, another landmass, Gondwana, was separated,
05:26which the scientists did not account for.
05:28And that landmass was Zealandia.
05:30But, over here, unfortunately, immediately after the separation, it sank into the water.
05:35And in the beginning, Zealandia was present at the boundary of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates.
05:40But at that time, there were so many tectonic activities,
05:43that both these plates were rapidly moving away from each other.
05:46And due to this, at that time, the Zealandia continent, which was present above these plates,
05:51sank into the sea about 50 to 35 million years ago.
05:57That is, in the historic timescale,
05:59even after the extinction of dinosaurs, at least 15 million years later,
06:02this continent was completely above the sea.
06:05In fact, this has also been scientifically proved.
06:07When the scientists were studying this Zealandia,
06:10that why did it go down,
06:12they saw some weird patterns at the bottom of the sea.
06:15Basically, below Zealandia, they saw that there were some structures like this,
06:20which are made of volcanic basalt rocks.
06:23Now, this only happens when two tectonic plates move away from each other,
06:28and molten magma is coming out of the crack between the two.
06:32Now, in this case, since that magma aligns and as soon as it comes up,
06:35it comes in contact with the cold water of the sea.
06:38So, naturally, it solidifies and forms a stripe like this.
06:42Now, since this molten magma has been coming out for thousands of years,
06:46every new stripe is coming out like this,
06:51and the Zealandia landmass sitting above these patterns is sinking.
06:56So, now friends, you know why we don't see Zealandia above the sea.
07:01But then again, this is just a half answer.
07:04The appearance of such a large landmass in front of our eyes,
07:08it didn't happen just because it was below the continental sea.
07:11One reason behind its absence is our ignorance.
07:16Modern science enthusiasts like us have never paid attention to a fundamental anomaly of the Earth.
07:21Have you ever wondered why almost all the continents of the Earth are in the Northern Hemisphere?
07:26Well, this question may be new to us, but it is actually a question of the 17th century,
07:31because of which Australia was discovered in 1606 and Zealandia was discovered today.
07:37In fact, this is the reason why all the news articles today
07:42are writing Missing for 375 Years.
07:45Actually, in 1492, when Italian explorer Christopher Columbus reached America in search of India,
07:51and eventually that unknown landmass was colonized by the rest of the European empires,
07:56then suddenly many empires rushed to colonize other states.
08:01Meanwhile, the Dutch Empire, which was also a major colonizer,
08:04realized that apart from landmasses connected to each other like Asia, Europe and Africa,
08:09there could be other unknown and different landmasses on this Earth.
08:14But where to find them?
08:16In the meantime, he thought that all these major landmasses, including the newly discovered America,
08:21why are they all mostly around the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth?
08:25To keep the Earth balanced, there must be a major landmass around the Southern Hemisphere.
08:31Keeping this assumption in mind, he named those missing hypothetical landmasses
08:38which in Latin simply means the Land of the South.
08:41But one second, out of the four oceans on the Earth,
08:44three major oceans, i.e. Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean,
08:48were majorly in the South.
08:50So the question was, where to start looking for Terra Australis?
08:54Finally, the decision was made that the landmasses they already knew,
08:57i.e. Asia, Europe and Africa, should be started from their southern tips.
09:01So with this, first of all, in 1606, the Dutch East India Company launched a mission
09:06and sent their two major top-notch explorers and navigators, Willem Janszoon and Abel Tasman,
09:11to the southern tip of Asia, to the south of Indonesia.
09:14First of all, in 1606, Janszoon went with his small team to conduct a preliminary research
09:20and he found the Australian continent there.
09:23And then, a few years later, Tasman was sent there
09:26so that he could map the coastline of that new landmass.
09:31And when this mapping was completed, this landmass was named Australia.
09:36But then, this was just half the story.
09:39The whole story is that during this mapping, he also found today's 8th continent, Zealandia.
09:45But before he could map it, in an attempt to save his life,
09:49he had to return immediately in a hurry.
09:52Actually, when Tasman was moving from Jakarta in Indonesia to Mauritius
09:55and then from Mauritius to Tasmania,
09:58he saw an unknown landmass there.
10:02This landmass was today's New Zealand,
10:05which could take him to another big continent, Zealandia, apart from Terra Australis.
10:10Because New Zealand was basically a peak of that continent, just like the tip of an iceberg.
10:16But then, as soon as Tasman and his crew reached that landmass,
10:21all of a sudden, the people of the local Maori tribe, Gati Tumatkakori,
10:26attacked their ship.
10:28And in this attack, Tasman's four crew members were killed.
10:31So, in order to save his and his remaining crew members,
10:34Tasman decided to return immediately without stepping foot there.
10:38And then, when Tasman returned,
10:40the story of his violent encounter with the Maori community spread throughout Europe.
10:46And because of this, for the next 100 years,
10:48no one dared to come here until 1769,
10:52when another major colonizer of Europe, the British Empire,
10:55in an attempt to take over the eastern part of Australia,
10:58made a colony of the nearby New Zealand.
11:01So, in the year 1769,
11:03the British Empire sent an experienced explorer of the Royal Navy, James Cook,
11:07to colonize the eastern part of Australia.
11:12Meanwhile, James Cook mapped New Zealand right next to it.
11:17And after years of violent clashes with the local tribes,
11:20finally, the eastern part of Australia and New Zealand became British colonies.
11:25Now, what's weird is that,
11:26for the next almost 100 years,
11:28despite ruling New Zealand,
11:30the British never realized that there was an entire continent hidden beneath their feet.
11:35And then, in the year 1840,
11:37when New Zealand was freed from the British,
11:39and its newly formed government called a Scottish naturalist, James Hector,
11:43to make a detailed map of their country,
11:45he found out that New Zealand is many times bigger than it looks.
11:50So big, that it can become a separate continent on its own.
11:54Now, I know, you must be thinking,
11:56that just on the basis of rocks' composition and size,
12:00how can we declare New Zealand as a continent?
12:03After all, our Sayadri mountains are also made of basalt rocks like an ocean bed,
12:07instead of continental granite rocks.
12:10So, with this logic, we should also declare our Sayadri mountains as oceanic floor.
12:15So, look, it's not like that,
12:17many factors are considered to classify any landmass as a continent.
12:21Out of which, at least these 4 factors should be there.
12:25First, as we discussed previously, its composition.
12:28Second, in comparison to the sea bed,
12:30its elevation, or simply its height,
12:33should always be above the average depth of the sea bed.
12:37Third, its sheer size and area.
12:39And lastly, it should have a separate tectonic plate.
12:43Now, in the case of Zealandia,
12:45we have already discussed the first factor, that it is present.
12:48In the case of elevation, it is about 1100 meters above the average depth of the South Pacific Ocean,
12:53that is, almost as high as our Sayadri mountains.
12:56Then, in terms of size and area,
12:58it is approximately 4.9 million square kilometers,
13:02which makes it as big as the Australian continent.
13:05And last but not the least,
13:07it also has a separate tectonic plate called Zealandia Plate,
13:12also known as Teriu Amaui Plate,
13:14which is completely different from its surrounding Pacific Plate and Australian Plate.
13:17Do you remember when I said that the Zealandia landmass is sinking due to the magma?
13:22Well, that landmass is actually the Zealandia tectonic plate.
13:26That is, all in all, in every way,
13:28Zealandia is a continent.
13:31And New Zealand is just a small peak of that continent.
13:35Now, I know, despite this scientific definition,
13:38it seems a little weird to accept it from somewhere, right?
13:42Confusion is being created because how can Zealandia, which is submerged in water, be a continent?
13:47Because our common belief is that the continent means a large landmass visible above the water.
13:53But friends, in science, as you already know,
13:56many times the definitions are very blurred.
13:58We cannot define anything exactly.
14:02Like, let's take humans.
14:04In our case, we can describe our physical features,
14:07but we cannot completely define a human being.
14:10Because some aspects of any two individuals,
14:13like their behavior, emotional state, perspectives,
14:16can never be the same.
14:18So no matter how many definitions you put on a person,
14:22you will still not be able to completely define him.
14:25And the same is happening here while calling Zealandia a continent.
14:29Because we cannot pinpoint and define continents exactly.
14:33When we talk about elevation,
14:35it is not properly defined how much height from the ocean bed a landmass is called a continent.
14:41If Zealandia was only 1 cm above the ocean bed,
14:45could it still be declared a continent?
14:48Just based on other factors?
14:50Well, I personally think that to avoid such confusing definitions,
14:54instead of putting multiple definitions under one term,
14:58maybe a separate term should be derived for such anomalies.
15:02Like, for example, as was done with Pluto.
15:04Pluto was originally a planet,
15:06but then it was found that it was not behaving completely like a planet,
15:10so it was made an asteroid.
15:12But then, when it was found that it does not behave like an asteroid,
15:16then finally a new category was made for it called Dwarf Planets.
15:20So that if such objects are found,
15:22which neither properly fall in the category of planets nor proper asteroids,
15:27they can be put in this category.
15:30So, in the same way, we have coined a new word for Zealandia.
15:35And in exactly the same way,
15:37the new continents that are being mapped,
15:39like Mauritius, Beringia, Doggerland,
15:42we can also categorize them under this word.
15:45Even though, for now, they are just some submerged invisible continents.
15:50But, you know friends, there is one more interesting thing
15:53that is happening with these submerged continents in the sea below.
15:57There is an invisible barrier about 6,900 km away from Zealandia.
16:02And because of this invisible barrier,
16:04the diversity of animals that are completely different in the range of just 35 km from each other.
16:11Well, how is this possible?
16:13Because it defies all the laws of evolution.
16:16Well, what is the secret behind this mystery?
16:18I have already decoded it in this video,
16:21which you can click and watch.
16:23It is a very interesting video.
16:24For now, if you have learned anything new from this video,
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16:34See you next time.
16:35As always, stay curious, keep learning and keep growing.
16:37Jai Hind!