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Republic of Iceland may be the last queer end of a nearly Texas - size continent — scream Icelandia — that sank beneath the North Atlantic Ocean about 10 million years ago , concord to a raw hypothesis suggest by an international team of geophysicists and geologist .
The hypothesis goes against long - standing ideas about the formation of Iceland and the North Atlantic , but the researchers say the hypothesis explain both the geologic features of the ocean floor and whyEarth ’s cheekiness beneath Iceland is so much thicker than it should be . external experts not affiliated with the inquiry tell Live Science they are skeptical that Icelandia exists establish on the evidence collected so far .
The continent of “Icelandia” may have stretched between Greenland and Scandinavia until about 10 million years ago, while another now-submerged region west of Britain and Ireland formed part of “Greater Icelandia."
Even so , if geological studies essay the theory , the ultra unexampled estimation of a sunken continent could have implication for the possession of any fuel find beneath the seafloor , which under external practice of law belong to a country that can show their continental incrustation extend that far .
" The neighborhood that ’s got continental material underneath , it extend fromGreenlandto Scandinavia , " said Gillian Foulger , lead writer of " Icelandia , " a chapter in the young ledger " In the Footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton : New Ideas in Earth Science " ( Geological Society of America , 2021 ) that describes the new theory . " Some of it in the Rebecca West and east has now sunk below the airfoil of the water , but it ’s still standing higher than it should . … If the ocean level dropped 600 meter [ 2,000 foot ] , then we would see a lot more land above the control surface of the ocean , " Foulger , an emeritus professor of geophysics at Durham University in the United Kingdom , recite Live Science .
Lost continent
The North Atlantic part was once entirely dry Din Land that made up the supercontinent ofPangaeafrom about 335 million to 175 million years ago , Foulger said . Geologists have long thought that the basin of the North Atlantic Ocean imprint as Pangaea began to break up 200 million age ago and that Iceland mold about 60 million years ago above a volcanic feather near the center of the ocean .
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But Foulger and her co - authors suggest a dissimilar theory : that oceans start to form roughly south and magnetic north — but not west and east — of Iceland as Pangaea develop up . Instead , the geologists wrote , the areas to the west and east remained machine-accessible to what are now Greenland and Scandinavia .
The continent of “Icelandia” may have stretched between Greenland and Scandinavia until about 10 million years ago, while another now-submerged region west of Britain and Ireland formed part of “Greater Icelandia."
" masses have this highly simplistic idea that atectonic plateis kind of like a dinner plate : It just carve up in two and moves apart , " Foulger said . " But it ’s more like a pizza , or a piece of artwork made from dissimilar materials — some fabric here and some ceramic there , so that unlike parts have unlike intensity level . "
grant to the new theory , Pangaea did n’t split apart cleanly , and the lost continent of Icelandia remained as an unbroken strip of dry farming at least 200 miles ( 300 klick ) wide that last out above the waves until about 10 million years ago , Foulger allege . Eventually , the easterly and western end of Icelandia also settle , and only Iceland stay , she articulate .
The possibility would explain why the crustal rocks underneath modern Iceland are about 25 naut mi ( 40 kilometre ) thick alternatively of about 5 mi ( 8 kilometer ) thickset , which would be ask if Iceland had formed over a volcanic feather , the geologist aver .
" When we considered the possibility that this thick crust is continental , our data suddenly all made sentience , " Foulgersaid in a statement . " This contribute us at once to realise that the continental region was much bigger than Iceland itself — there is a obscure continent right there under the ocean . "
Continental shelf
Foulger and her colleagues estimated that Icelandia once stretched over more than 230,000 straight mile ( 600,000 straightforward km ) of dry land between Greenland and Scandinavia — an area a act littler than Texas . ( Today , Iceland mensurate about 40,000 square mile , or 103,000 square kilometre . )
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They suggested that there was also a likewise sized adjoining region , making up " Greater Icelandia , " to the west of what is now Britain and Ireland . But that region , too , has slump beneath the waves , they said .
Fossil evidence show that some plant that spread by discharge seeds are monovular in both Greenland and Scandinavia . That get hold reinforces the idea that a wide funnies of teetotal land once connected the two regions , the writer said . However , the geologist are not cognisant of any fogey evidence of fauna on the deep in thought continent .
Geographer Philip Steinberg , conductor of Durham University ’s Centre for Borders Research , say the new possibility of Icelandia could have implications for the possession of fossil fuels beneath the seafloor ; under international law , countries can lay claim those fogy fuels if the evidence proves the resource reside beneath that commonwealth ’s continental ledge — a relatively shallow region of the seafloor that can extend hundreds of miles beyond the coast .
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Steinberg , who was not involved in the Icelandia research , noted that countries around the world are spending large amounts of money on geological enquiry that could allow them to claim undivided mineral rights beneath their continental shelves .
" enquiry like Professor Foulger ’s , which forces us to rethink the relationship between Davy Jones and continental geology , can have far - make impingement for countries trying to determine what area of the Davy Jones are their single conserves , " Steinberg say in the statement .
The concept of Icelandia go against prevailing theories for the formation of the North Atlantic region , and several prominent geologist and geophysicist are vital of the estimate .
Ian Dalziel , a geologist at the University of Texas of Austin , wholast calendar month deliver the goods the Penrose Medalfor his workplace on ancient geography and past supercontinents , said he could see little to justify the proposal .
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Unlike thesunken continent of Zealandia , for example , which geologists have established was indite of continental crust that secern from Antarctica and then drop down , there was not enough continental encrustation material in the North Atlantic region to have formed Icelandia , Dalziel told Live Science in an email .
Geophysicists Carmen Gaina , conductor of the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics in Oslo , and Alexander Minakov of the University of Oslo tell Live Science in an email that the proposal was a " bold claim " that had several problems , and that the existence of Icelandia was unlikely .
For instance , magnetic surveys of the seafloor in the realm show " stripes " that argue when successive layers of liquefied crust were place down on the seafloor of the North Atlantic as the Earth’smagnetic fieldchanged polarity over billion of old age — a clear sign of oceanic crust also control in bombastic oceanic plateaus in the Pacific Ocean , they said .
But " their conceptual survey is a honorable starting point for word and more significantly , for more and relevant data point collection,“Gaina and Minakov allege — such as further geological boring on the seafloor and seismal surveys that can appraise the cheekiness from its seismal echo of calibrate explosions carried out by research ships .
Originally published on Live Science .
