The mysterious newly discovered continent is actually old.
Over 500 million years ago,
a continent known as Zealandia, was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana, which included most of Western Antarctica and Eastern Australia.
Zealandia, was once part of the same land mass as Antarctica and Australia, before it broke off some 85 million years ago and eventually sank below the ocean, where it stayed largely hidden for centuries.
It got thinner because of high heat flow and the formation of a rift basin.
The existence of Zealandia was first recorded in 1642 by Dutch businessman and sailor Abel Tasman, who was on a mission to find the “great Southern Continent” or Terra Australia.
Media in New Zealand reported it was found and confirmed by scientists under the Pacific Ocean back in
2017, with a size of 1.89 million square miles.
New Zealand is the largest part of Zealandia that is above sea level, followed by New Caledonia.