With how lengthy the human species has been on Earth, it is stunning what number of new discoveries are made every year.However maybe one of the spectacular discoveries researchers have made in current occasions comes within the type of a lacking continent.Everyone knows the seven continents of the world – Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia, in fact – however the elusive eighth continent was as soon as a part of an historical supercontinent nicknamed the ‘nice Southern Continent’.It had been theorized about since Roman occasions and was even partially found within the 1600s.Initially together with Western Antarctica and Japanese Australia, the continent confused specialists for a few years.Finally, solutions have been uncovered – however it will take almost 4 lengthy centuries for geologists to lastly come to settlement on the brand new continent.So, let’s take issues again to the preliminary discovery.Satellite tv for pc picture of Zealandia. Credit score: GNS ScienceIn 1642, Dutch businessman and sailor Abel Tasman got down to discover the elusive eighth continent – also referred to as Terra Australis in Latin.Setting sail from Jakarta, Indonesia, Tasman finally landed on the Southern Island of New Zealand and began to discover.Earlier than he might set foot on dry land, he encountered the native Māori who have been, effectively, lower than impressed with the European sailor.In reality, they have been so pissed off by his presence that they rammed a ship passing messages between the Dutch ships with a canoe, killing 4 folks.Having failed to seek out the brand new land, Tasman travelled again residence and by no means returned – mockingly, this was the primary time anybody would report details about the mysterious eighth continent.Virtually 400 years later, GNS geologists introduced the invention of a brand new continent referred to as Zealandia or Te Riu-a-Māui, within the Māori dialect.It seems the continent, which is roughly 1.89 million sq. miles (4.9 million sq km) and had been hiding in plain sight, is generally underwater.The scientists confirmed how Zealandia pulled away from the supercontinent. Credit score: GNS ScienceThe huge continent had additionally been a part of the traditional supercontinent of Gondwana, which additionally included most of Western Antarctica and Japanese Australia, over 500 million years in the past.Nevertheless, roughly 105 million years in the past, Zealandia started to ‘draw back’ from the supercontinent for causes geologists nonetheless don’t totally perceive.As Zealandia did this, it started to sink beneath the waves with over 94 % remaining underwater for millennia.”That is an instance of how one thing very apparent can take some time to uncover,” defined Andy Tulloch, one of many geologists on the Zealand Crown Analysis Institute GNS Science who made the 2017 discovery.The person who led the examine, Nick Mortimer, joked that it was ‘type of cool’ and defined why it took so lengthy for the invention.”If you consider it, each continent on the planet has completely different nations on it, [but] there are solely three territories on Zealandia,” he stated.