Forget Atlantis: 'Lost continent' found under Indian Ocean

[Garrison Hilliard]

It's not Atlantis, but a lost continent has been found and it's sitting
under an island in the Indian Ocean. Josh King has the story
(@abridgetoland). Buzz60
636215488091847413-Mauritius-beach-mountains-scenery.jpg

Typical view of Mauritius beachfront with volcanic mountains in
background. The basaltic lavas constituting these mountains formed no
older than 9 million years ago.(Photo: Susan J. Webb, University of the
Witwatersrand)

Forget Atlantis. Scientists have uncovered evidence of an ancient "lost
continent" under the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, according
to a new study.

The continent, which geologists call "Mauritia," formed part of
present-day Madagascar and India. The rest of the continent probably
sank beneath the sea 84 million years ago.

"We are studying the break-up process of the continents, in order to
understand the geological history of the planet," said study lead
author [71]Lewis Ashwal of the University of the Witwatersrand in South
Africa.

The continent was likely part of the gigantic supercontinent Gondwana,
which broke up to become Antarctica, Africa, Australia and South
America.
Gondwana was a super-continent that existed more than

Gondwana was a super-continent that existed more than 200 million years
ago and contained rocks as old as 3.6 billion years old, before it
split up into what are now the continents of Africa, South America,
Antarctica, India and Australia.
(Photo: University of the Witwatersrand)

The clue to the discovery was finding an ancient mineral on Mauritius
that shouldn't have been there.

By studying the mineral zircon, which is found in rocks spewed up by
lava during volcanic eruptions, Ashwal and his colleagues
discovered remnants of this mineral that were much too old to belong on
the island of Mauritius.

"Earth is made up of two parts -- continents, which are old, and
oceans, which are 'young,'" he said. On continents, rocks can be
billions of years old, but nothing that old exists in the oceans,
explained Ashwal.

Mauritius is only a few million years old, while some recently
discovered zircon crystals on the island were estimated at 3 billion
years old. "The fact that we have found zircons of this age proves that
there are much older crustal materials under Mauritius that could only
have originated from a continent," says Ashwal.

The study said there are likely many pieces of various sizes of
"undiscovered continent, collectively called Mauritia," spread over the
Indian Ocean.

The study appeared in the peer-reviewed British journal [72]Nature
Communications.

Prof. Lewis D. Ashwal studyies an outcropping of trachyte

Prof. Lewis D. Ashwal studyies an outcropping of trachyte rocks in
Mauritius. Such samples are about 6 million years old, but surprisingly
contain zircon grains as old as 3 billion years.
(Photo: Prof. Susan J. Webb, University of the Witwatersrand)


http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/02/01/lost-continent-mauritius-indian-ocean/97341786/