THE DISCOVERY OF

A NEW CONTINENT ON
PLANET EARTH:
Zealandia

By Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk, Science Editor

February 2017

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.

Recently, in February 2017, scientists have discovered a new continent called Zealandia,
which includes New Zealand and New Caledonia.
However, what are the continents and how many are there? How are the layers of the Earth
playing a role in the formation of the continents? What are the layers of the Earth called?
Read on to find out more.
What are continents and what are the continental plates?
The earth is divided into four layers and the crust is its top layer. In the next section, we would
look at the layers in more depth. On Earth, in part of the crust, the world is broken into chunks
called continents. Before the discovery of Zealandia, four, five, six and seven continents were
accepted as the number of continents on Earth. However, prior to the discovery, seven
continents were the most commonly accepted number. The difference in the number of
continents depends on how the continents are categorised. For example, whether South
America and North America are combined as one continent, or whether these are separated
as being two continents. Furthermore, whether you have Europe and Asia grouped together
as one, called Eurasia. Alternatively, Europe and Asia could be arranged as two separate
continents, such as Europe and Asia. See Figure 1. for further information.

7 6 6 5 5 4

CONTINENTS CONTINENTS CONTINENTS CONTINENTS CONTINENTS CONTINENTS

1. NORTH X NORTH X X
AMERICA AMERICA

2. SOUTH AMERICA X SOUTH X X

AMERICA

3. AFRICA AFRICA AFRICA AFRICA AFRICA X

4. ANTARCTICA ANTARCTICA ANTARCTICA ANTARCTICA ANTARCTICA

5. AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA/ AUSTRALIA/ AUSTRALIA

(OCEANIA)
OCEANIA OCEANIA

6. EUROPE EUROPE X X EUROPE X

7. ASIA ASIA X X ASIA X

AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA

EUROASIA EUROASIA

AFRO-
EUROASIA

(or Eurafrasia),

Figure 1.

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.

However, the continents in Figure 1. are not all continental plates.
Continental Plate. Where is this Continent?
Pacific In between the Nazcan, North American, South
American, African and Eurasian plates.
Nazca In between the Pacific, North American, South American,
and Antarctic plates.
Africa In between the Eurasian, North American, South
American, Arabian, Indian and Australian plates.
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Europe(If Europe and Asia i In between the African, North American, South American Formatted: Default Paragraph Font, Font: (Default)
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erica and South Ameri Eurasian Plates.
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South America(If North Am In between the Nazcan, Antarctic, African and North Formatted ...
erica and South Americ American plates.
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Arabia In between the African, Eurasian and Indian plates. Formatted ...
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India In between the Arabian, African, Eurasian and Australian
plates. Formatted ...
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Zealandia In between the Australian and the Pacific plates.
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Australia In between the Indian, Pacific, Antarctic, African and Formatted ...
Eurasian plates. Formatted ...
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Figure 2.
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KEY Formatted ...

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Sea: These plates are in the sea Formatted ...
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Land: These plates are on land
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© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.

Continental plates are what the land and the sea floor lie on top of. Volcanos and
earthquakes are around the area where these plates connect. Here is a map which illustrates
the continental plates. The light blue coloured areas on the map are sea, the black lines on
the map are plate boundaries, and the remaining coloured areas on the map are land.

This is the Pacific plate.

This is the Nazca plate.

Figure 3.

The plates link together and move apart creating new continents. Around 270-million years
ago, there was a super-continent called Pangea. In a period of Geological Time on earth,
called The Jurassic which is part of the Mesozoic era, Pangea broke up into smaller pieces. It
broke into two super-continents called Gondwana (sometimes called Gondwanaland) and
Laurasia. Laurasia was in the north and Gondwana in the south.

The Geological Time Scale (GTS) is a system used by Earth Scientists, for example, geologists
and palaeontologists, to describe the timing and relationships of events that have occurred
during Earth's history. Therefore, it gives us a window into Planet Earth’s history. Please see
Figure 4. for illustration. After the Mesozoic Era, in the early Cenozoic Era, the Earth changed
to be how it is today.

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.
 Figure 4

What are the layers of the Earth?

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved.

The Earth is made up of different layers, and to make it easier it could be compared with the
layers of an apple. See Figure 5. for an illustration of this example.

Figure 5.

The layers of the Earth have four layers and they are the crust, the mantle, the inner core
and the outer core. Please see Figure 6. for illustration.

Figure 6.

The top layer of the earth is what is called the crust. There are two types of crust, which are
the oceanic and continental crust. Continental crust is the land and about 10-70km deep,

This is the crust. There are two typ

© 2016 Vashaanth Gowri-Kriszyk. All Rights Reserved. es of crust: oceanic and continental
. Continental crust is the land and
about 10-70km deep and oceanic
is under the ocean and is about 5-
whereas, oceanic crust is under the ocean and is about 5-10km deep. This layer is
solid.

The mantle is made out of two layers, which are the lower mantle and the upper mantle.
The upper mantle is solid and is around 5-300 km deep. The combination of the upper
mantle and the crust is called the lithosphere. The lower mantle is liquid and is T
sometimes called the asthenosphere. It is around 300-700km deep. h
i
The outer core is liquid and around 700-1700 km deep. This is so hot that the pressure s
cannot turn it into a solid. The inner core is hotter than the outer core but the pressure of i
the other layers above it makes it impossible for the inner core to be liquid, consequently, s
the inner core is solid.
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