Ancient continent buried under Indian Ocean

[One-23 Profile]

Sand from Mauritian beaches reveals rock from ancient landmass



The beaches of Mauritius contain fragments of a type of rock typical of ancient continental crust — rock which could have been brought to the surface by volcanic eruptions.

The drowned remnants of an ancient microcontinent may lie scattered beneath the waters between Madagascar and India, a new study suggests.

Evidence for the long-lost land comes from Mauritius, a volcanic island about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar. The oldest basalts on the island date to about 8.9 million years ago, says Bjørn Jamtveit, a geologist at the University of Oslo. Yet grain-by-grain analyses of beach sand that Jamtveit and his colleagues collected at two sites on the Mauritian coast revealed around 20 zircons — tiny crystals of zirconium silicate that are exceedingly resistant to erosion or chemical change — that were far older.

The zircons had crystallized within granites or other igneous rocks at least 660 million years ago, says Jamtveit. One of these zircons was at least 1.97 billion years old.

Continue reading http://www.nature.com/news/long-lost-co ... an-1.12487

[Eldorado Profile]

So far the ancient continent of Atlantis, or Antarctica, is clearly the continent they speak of. It was originally in the Indian Ocean, until the moon smacked the shit outta our planet, and pushed the continent to the southern pole........the offset mass at the pole is the reason we keep returning to a stable orbit, even though we are rotating out of alignment slightly.

And when Atlantis rises, is when the planet realigns to the perfect axis/radius, we get a continental shift that pushes the Cape of Good Hope to the South......and makes the continent reappear from the depths of the oceans, and will rise into the warmer areas, exposing the ancient land of Mu.......

of course this took 100's of thousands of years to get to this point.........

sweet jesus I could write a book about all this.....$$$

[Noentry Profile]

Fragments of ancient continent buried under Indian Ocean


Land on Earth was once gathered together in a supercontinent known as Rodinia, shown here as it was during its break-up 750 million years ago. Now scientists believe they have found a fragment of it buried under the Indian Ocean



Fragments of an ancient continent are buried beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean, a study suggests. Researchers have found evidence for a landmass that would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. The strip of land, which scientists have called Mauritia, eventually fragmented and vanished beneath the waves as the modern world started to take shape. The study is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Supercontinent

Until about 750 million years ago, the Earth's landmass was gathered into a vast single continent called Rodinia. And although they are now separated by thousands of kilometres of ocean, India was once located next to Madagascar. Now researchers believe they have found evidence of a sliver of continent - known as a microcontinent - that was once tucked between the two. The team came to this conclusion after studying grains of sand from the beaches of Mauritius. While the grains dated back to a volcanic eruption that happened about nine million years ago, they contained minerals that were much older.

Professor Trond Torsvik, from the University of Oslo, Norway, said: "We found zircons that we extracted from the beach sands, and these are something you typically find in a continental crust. They are very old in age." The zircon dated to between 1,970 and 600 million years ago, and the team concluded that they were remnants of ancient land that had been dragged up to the surface of the island during a volcanic eruption.

We need seismic data which can image the structure... This would be the ultimate proof” Professor Trond Torsvik University of Oslo

Prof Torsvik said that he believed pieces of Mauritia could be found about 10km down beneath Mauritius and under a swathe of the Indian Ocean. It would have spanned millions years of history, from the Precambrian Era when land was barren and devoid of life to the age when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But about 85m years ago, as India started to drift away from Madagascar towards its current location, the microcontinent would have broken up, eventually disappearing beneath the waves. However, a small part could have survived. "At the moment the Seychelles is a piece of granite, or continental crust, which is sitting practically in the middle of the Indian Ocean," explained Prof Torsvik.

"But once upon a time, it was sitting north of Madagascar. And what we are saying is that maybe this was much bigger, and there are many of these continental fragments that are spread around in the ocean." Further research is needed to fully investigate what remains of this lost region.

Prof Torsvik explained: "We need seismic data which can image the structure... this would be the ultimate proof. Or you can drill deep, but that would cost a lot of money."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21551149

[Noentry Profile]

Maybe you'll grab a bit more interest than I did...

long-lost-continent-found-under-the-indian-ocean-t84906.html

And I thought that this kinda stuff was DTV Bread and Butter

Depends who is on.

And if you ask any controversial questions.

I was tempted to put "continent of Atlantis found" as the title, that would of got a few reply's.


any way Mods I think a merge is in order.

One-23

[-Marduk- Profile]

Maybe you'll grab a bit more interest than I did...

long-lost-continent-found-under-the-indian-ocean-t84906.html

And I thought that this kinda stuff was DTV Bread and Butter

Depends who is on.

And if you ask any controversial questions.

I was tempted to put "continent of Atlantis found" as the title, that would of got a few reply's.


any way Mods I think a merge is in order.

One-23

Done.