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Scientists claim the continents of Europe and North America are still geologically splitting apart.
Learning the geography in school, we were typically taught that our planet is made up of seven continents.
There may be a need to update geography textbooks, as a disputed research is currently suggesting there are only six continents.
Researchers from the University of Derby assert that the drift apart of the European and North American continents is an ongoing process.
Dr. Jordan Phethean, a researcher mentioned in the study, remarked: “The finding reveals that the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates have not fully separated, contradicting the long-held assumption that this occurred about 52 million years ago.
‘They are, indeed, still in the process of expanding and fragmenting.’
The recent study focused on the creation of Iceland, situated between the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.
Until now, it was generally thought that Iceland formed approximately 60 million years ago when the mid-Atlantic ridge, the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, began to break apart, resulting in the formation of a hot mantle plume that shaped the island into a volcanic one.
However, in their latest research, the team challenged this theory.
By analyzing the movement of the tectonic plates in Africa, the researchers now propose that Iceland and the Greenland-Iceland Faroes Ridge (GIFR) also consist of pieces that are fragments of both the European and North American continents that are lost and submerged.
They are calling this newly recognized feature a “Rifted Oceanic Magmatic Plateau,” or ROMP for short.
‘This idea, I call it the Earth Science equivalent of uncovering the lost city of Atlantis; remnants of a submerged continent buried beneath the ocean and covered by thousands of meters of lava flows,’ Dr. Phethean stated.
‘By examining the progression of rifting in the volcanic Afra region in Africa and comparing it to the Earth’s behavior in Iceland, we can observe that these two areas are undergoing similar evolutionary developments.’
If the researchers are correct, this implies that the rifting and separation of the European and North American continents are still in process.
From a scientific perspective, this would imply that North America and Europe can be considered as a single continent rather than two separate ones.
“Our research indicates that the Grenville Fault Zone (GIFR) likely contains a significant amount of continental crust, a conclusion that some might find hard to accept, given that the European and North American tectonic plates may not be fully separated as previously thought,” Dr. Phethean stated.
Research is still in its foundational stages, however, scientists intend to investigate volcanic rocks in Iceland to gather conclusive proof of ancient continental crust.
They are also conducting plate tectonic modeling of the region, and will use computer simulations in order to attempt modeling the ROMP formation.
Found to have been formed approximately 60 million years ago.
The proto-microcontinent is approximately 402-kilometers long – roughly the same size as England – and at present lies below the Davis Strait, which connects the Labrador Sea in the south with Baffin Bay to the north.
The process of continental breakup and the formation of small landmasses is a continuing process.
The discovery of the Davis Straight proto-microcontinent lets us comprehend the formation process of microcontinents better, which ultimately sheds more light on how plate tectonics functions on Earth.
‘This enables scientists to forecast where prosperous resources can be discovered, how the Earth may appear millions of years from now, and how plate tectonics operated in the Earth’s early period, as well as its potential contribution to the emergence of life.’
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