Scientists have discovered a new microcontinent that is thought to have formed 60 million years ago.
This surprising discovery researcher Luke Longley and Dr Jordan Fathean from the University of Derby Englandand Dr. Christian Schiffer from Uppsala University in Sweden.
This microcontinent is located between Greenland and Canada (Getty Stock Photo)
The microcontinents are Canada Located east of Greenland, the island is 250 miles long and lies beneath Davis Strait, which connects the Labrador Sea to the south with Baffin Bay to the north.
The discovery was made as the team was investigating tectonic plate activity in the region, and research into its formation is currently ongoing. Published In Gondwana studies.
“Rift and microcontinent formation are ongoing phenomena. earthquake“We may be working towards the next microcontinental break-up,” says Dr Jordan Fathean. Said Physics.org.
“The aim of our research is to fully understand its formation and predict its future evolution.”
This microcontinent is thought to have started to form 118 million years ago.
This microcontinent is thought to have started to form 118 million years ago (L. Longley et al./Gondwana Research)
The researchers explain that microcontinents are “related regions of relatively thick continental lithosphere that are separated from the main continents by regions of thinner continental lithosphere.”
The cracks first started 118 million years agoScientists believe that ocean-floor spreading began about 61 million years ago, before the continents completely separated about 33 million years ago.
This crucial study could prove crucial to understanding how other microcontinents formed.
“Increased knowledge of how these microcontinents form will help researchers understand how plate tectonics works on Earth, which will have beneficial implications for mitigating plate tectonic hazards and discovering new resources,” said co-author Dr Jordan Fathean.
Meanwhile, geologists are convinced that new oceans are being created in Africa as the continent continues to move apart.
Currently landlocked countries such as Zambia and Uganda may one day have their own coastlines, thanks to the East African Rift Valley.
The cracks are getting more media coverage In recent years, it has been attracting attention It comes after a major rift suddenly appeared in Kenya in 2018.
Some scientists suggest that this is because the African plate split in two.
But this isn’t the only theory geologists have for how the rift formed.
Some say soil erosion may be to blame.
The crack means that over tens of millions of years a new ocean will form, spreading the seafloor along the entire length of the crack, and it appears we’re already seeing signs of this.
