William sent in this link – www.newsweek.com/zealandia-lost-continent-drilling-expedition-640248 …
… where we learn that scientists are about to drill into the lost continent of Zealandia. Apparently, Zealandia was submerged during the dinosaur age (no actual date is provided) but is said to have rose up again 50 million years ago (but fell back to being submerged very quickly). The question is – why? Why was i submerged in the first place and what was happening 50 million years ago. They, of course, have yet to find out.
The lost continent, above, stretches from Fiji and Tonga in the NE, and the Kenn Plateau (just off the Queensland coast) in the NW, to well below New Zealand in the south. It seems that it may probably be just New Zealand that surfaced around 50 million years ago, sank again, and resurfaced somewhat later. Modelling acrobats have been at play and what is said here is all to do with playing with a mouse and shifting plates around. For example, we are told the Pacific plate drove under New Zealand and this is what caused it to rise up above sea level. This was followed by a period of volcanic activity they associate with a known volcanic arc system which in turn they associate with a plate boundary. Why didn't the whole lost continent surface? The truth is they don't know. They do have geological evidence that New Zealand was above sea level 50 million years ago but no evidence the rest of it remained under the waves. The results of the research, and what they find by drilling into Zealandia, will be interesting – to say the least.