A 9-week investigation approaching the lost Continent "Geelandia" finished, to clarify the secret of the mysterious continent

There is a theory that it existed off the continent of Australia, the lost continent "Jealandia"The undersea survey, which has been proceeded to unravel the actual situation, completed the 9-week schedule and returned to the port where the investigation team is the base. Detailed analysis will be carried out over the next one year or more, but a number of fossils have been discovered from the geological samples sampled by the boring survey at the ocean floor, once there is a continent or a shallow sea equivalent thereto It is gradually becoming clear that there existed an environment where living things could come and go.

Scientists reveal secrets of lost continent Zealandia | Earth | EarthSky
http://earthsky.org/earth/lost-continent-zealandia-drilling-expedition-2017

We have been conducting a survey team consisting of 32 scientists from 12 countries participating in the "International Deep Sea Science Drilling Program" (IODP), which is located south of Australia after 9 weeks of offshore investigation I returned to Tasmanian city Hobart. The survey was conducted by deep sea drilling vesselsJOIDES · ResolutionWe investigated the traces of life by analyzing the strata by sowing samples by drilling the ocean floor of 1,000 meters or more in depth and investigating the traces of life and examining the traces of life, To check the situation. In the future, the work to analyze the sample taken back in detail will be carried out for more than a year, but the scientists involved in the investigation succeeded in discovering hundreds of fossils by offshore analysis, I believe that Geelandia once existed beneath a shallow ocean.


Zealandia is believed to exist in the eastern part of the present Australia, and its area is said to be equivalent to India. Although it is called "the continent", in reality it is thought that many parts were shallow water, there are negative thoughts about classifying it into land, but on the other hand it is suitable for the breeding of living things It is also thought that the environment existed and may have played a major role in the evolution of the earth and the distribution of organisms.


The total length of the bored sample is as high as 2,500 meters. Among them are fine shellfish which seems to have lived in a warm shallow sea, fossils of spores and pollen of plants growing on the ground, and in the past Geelandia was located in a shallow sea state or higher than the sea level Traces have been confirmed that show the appearance of land formation. In addition, it is thought that we can also collect data that can learn about past earth climate change and traces of volcanic activity. Geelandia, once in the vicinity of the sea surface, is believed to have subsided at a stretch to the present water depth of 1250 m due to the activity of the submarine volcano and crustal deformation.


The movement route of the research team is as shown in the map below. Move from northern to central part of Jealandia, boring investigation is done in several places.


By the survey of this time Zealandia, it is expected that the appearance of "the eighth continent" which had not even been known until then will be gradually revealed, and in the meantime investigate past climate data in detail By doing so, it is also expected to improve the accuracy of computer simulation of future climate change. The state of the survey can catch a glimpse of part of it in the following movie.

First Drill-Expedition 371 Tasman Sea Frontier - YouTube