The ancient microcontinent of Mauritia may lie between Madagascar and India.
A study by geologists at the University of Oslo has uncovered that the ancient microcontinent of Mauritia is likely drowned beneath the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and India. Mauritia would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. Grain-by-grain analysis of sand on the beaches of Mauritius, in the Indian ocean, revealed zircons - tiny crystals of zirconium silicate that are resistant to erosion. The zircons would have crystallized some 660 million years ago. The geologists propose that volcanic eruptions on the bottom of the sea brought shards of the ancient continent to Earth's surface, which eroded in the sea and washed up on the more geologically recent island. The only other possible source of zircons would be Madagascar, across the ocean from Mauritius, where there's an outcrop of continental crust.
So where, then, did the continent go? Areas of crust under the Indian Ocean are three to five times thicker than the average thickness of Earth's crust. Those areas of thickness may be the remains of the landmass Mauritia, which would have split from Madagascar and subsequently sank due to stretching and thinning of crust. It's likely that Mauritia would have been an island about three times as big as Crete.
Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and here I thought this was going to be some kind of Atlantis theory again...
That's gotta be embarrassing for all the Indian and Madagascan geologists, they live right next to it and yet it took some guys from 10.000km away to find it.
I was wondering when /if this was going to be confirmed. When I saw the the story originally on msn, the two primary sources were the daily mail and yahoo. My hopes were not high.
Wrong Ocean, the Indian Ocean equivalent is Lemuria. While for the Pacific it is Mu. =p
LOL good call, but Going off the one theory that Atlantis "floated away" Just like how it supposedly floated to off the coast of North America and became the Bermuda triangle /eyeroll. Gotta love it.
Squilookle: You think anyone stood up and yelled in triumph:
AHA! ZIRCONS! I KNEW IT!
(OoO) *gasp*
Why would anyone celebrate the victory of the cruel Zircons over the peace-loving Mauritians, culminating in the destruction of their very land they walked ?
Wait ... wait ...
... you mean Zircons aren't aliens? Well shit who the hell named `em that. Don't go calling little hunks of rocks something that sounds like an intergalactic empire, damnit! I'm easily excitable !
At what point does an island become a microcontinent? Let's be honest, 3 times the size of Crete isn't very big. Crete is 8,336 square kilometers, three times that is 25,008 square kilometers. Roughly 1/4th the size of Cuba (109,884 square km), which doesn't hold "microcontient" status.
It's Atlant.... oh why did you go and ruin everyone's fun.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
AC10: At what point does an island become a microcontinent? Let's be honest, 3 times the size of Crete isn't very big. Crete is 8,336 square kilometers, three times that is 25,008 square kilometers. Roughly 1/4th the size of Cuba (109,884 square km), which doesn't hold "microcontient" status.
According to Wiki: "Continental crustal fragments, partially synonymous with microcontinents,[1] are fragments of continents that have been broken off from main continental masses forming distinct islands, often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin."
Oh, and funnily enough:
"Other microcontinents:
Barbados Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and other granitic Caribbean islands Kerguelen Plateau"
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
Well, no humans people :)
Like how the Mediterranean drying up a few times 50 million years ago is supposedly the inspiration for Atlantis or whatever. According to someone.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
Well, no humans people :)
Like how the Mediterranean drying up a few times 50 million years ago is supposedly the inspiration for Atlantis or whatever. According to someone.
Yes and that someone probably fell on their head because nobody knew about that until modern times and the legend of Atlantis is over 2000 years old written by Plato in 360 BC, who took inspiration from an older story by Solon in roughly 600 BC.
Now could an 85 million year old civilization of intelligent dinosaurs exist? Maybe, but nothing exists that can confirm that so I am just going to say no.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
Well, no humans people :)
Like how the Mediterranean drying up a few times 50 million years ago is supposedly the inspiration for Atlantis or whatever. According to someone.
Yes and that someone probably fell on their head because nobody knew about that until modern times and the legend of Atlantis is over 2000 years old written by Plato in 360 BC, who took inspiration from an older story by Solon in roughly 600 BC.
Now could an 85 million year old civilization of intelligent dinosaurs exist? Maybe, but nothing exists that can confirm that so I am just going to say no.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
Well, no humans people :)
Like how the Mediterranean drying up a few times 50 million years ago is supposedly the inspiration for Atlantis or whatever. According to someone.
Yes and that someone probably fell on their head because nobody knew about that until modern times and the legend of Atlantis is over 2000 years old written by Plato in 360 BC, who took inspiration from an older story by Solon in roughly 600 BC.
And isn't that what the lizard people would want you to think?
Seriously, though, IIRC Plato specifies the age of the city of Atlantis as some 50,000 years before he was writing, about 40,000 years before the first city was built anyway
Like how the Mediterranean drying up a few times 50 million years ago is supposedly the inspiration for Atlantis or whatever. According to someone.
Yes and that someone probably fell on their head because nobody knew about that until modern times and the legend of Atlantis is over 2000 years old written by Plato in 360 BC, who took inspiration from an older story by Solon in roughly 600 BC.
And isn't that what the lizard people would want you to think?
Seriously, though, IIRC Plato specifies the age of the city of Atlantis as some 50,000 years before he was writing, about 40,000 years before the first city was built anyway
Not lizard people, Dinosaur people. Big difference.
Dinosaur people would not stoop to such methods.
Also your argument is 50'000 years. The continent sank 85'000'000 years ago. Unless Plato left out that they were all merfolk they gonna have a hard time breathing.
Also the first city of what? Of which nation? Of which tribe? Of which civilization.
1337mokro: Also your argument is 50'000 years. The continent sank 85'000'000 years ago. Unless Plato left out that they were all merfolk they gonna have a hard time breathing.
That was my point (well, was talking about the Med drying up, the last time being about 50 million years ago).
1337mokro: Also the first city of what? Of which nation? Of which tribe? Of which civilization.
IIRC, the first city ever to be built by humans was in the fertile crescent (maybe in Mesopotamia?) in what is now the Middle East, about 13,000BC. Depending on your definition of city, though.
As a Mauritian (from Mauritius ;)), I'm a proud that my country is kinda being represented here, although I suppose as the bastard child (-cough- Island got formed thanks to some active (now dormant) volcano) of some now drowned micro continent.
It's Atlant.... oh why did you go and ruin everyone's fun.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
What part of "between 2,000 and 85 million years ago" did you read as "over 85 million years ago"?
AC10: At what point does an island become a microcontinent? Let's be honest, 3 times the size of Crete isn't very big. Crete is 8,336 square kilometers, three times that is 25,008 square kilometers. Roughly 1/4th the size of Cuba (109,884 square km), which doesn't hold "microcontient" status.
According to Wiki: "Continental crustal fragments, partially synonymous with microcontinents,[1] are fragments of continents that have been broken off from main continental masses forming distinct islands, often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin."
Oh, and funnily enough:
"Other microcontinents:
Barbados Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and other granitic Caribbean islands Kerguelen Plateau"
Ohhhh, that's kind of neat! So Cuba IS a microcontinent after all! Castro, you sly devil!
Antonio Torrente: Oh great another conspiracy fuel for Hysteria Channel's Ancient Aliens. Wonder what kind of insane explanation they will use?
Aliens crashed there and the island sank? And the zircons are a byproduct of the impact, of course. Also, they might have tried to bring it back up to repair their mistake (or recover the ship, not too sure here), but it sank again, thus the legend of Atlantis. If you think about it, it's logical. If you really think about it, you'll go to sleep and forget this crap.
It's Atlant.... oh why did you go and ruin everyone's fun.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
DINOSAUR PEOPLE. It was in fact a giant elevator built by dinosaurs, that used it to escape the meteor and make an underground society... Now we await, the journey to the centre of the earth!
AC10: At what point does an island become a microcontinent? Let's be honest, 3 times the size of Crete isn't very big. Crete is 8,336 square kilometers, three times that is 25,008 square kilometers. Roughly 1/4th the size of Cuba (109,884 square km), which doesn't hold "microcontient" status.
I thought that it was defined by tectonic plates or something like that rather than size. I'm talking out of my arse, so take that with a continent of salt.
1337mokro: Also your argument is 50'000 years. The continent sank 85'000'000 years ago. Unless Plato left out that they were all merfolk they gonna have a hard time breathing.
That was my point (well, was talking about the Med drying up, the last time being about 50 million years ago).
1337mokro: Also the first city of what? Of which nation? Of which tribe? Of which civilization.
IIRC, the first city ever to be built by humans was in the fertile crescent (maybe in Mesopotamia?) in what is now the Middle East, about 13,000BC. Depending on your definition of city, though.
I think you mean 5 million years ago. The Messinian Salinity Crisis. The Zanclean (I know awesome name right?) flood that eventually happened when the Gibraltar strait opened again roughly 5 mil years ago?
I was asking because you weren't specific. You could have been talking sci-fi for all I knew :D
It's Atlant.... oh why did you go and ruin everyone's fun.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
What part of "between 2,000 and 85 million years ago" did you read as "over 85 million years ago"?
That is 2000 Million. You always put the Earliest date then the most Recent date. That is not intended to be 2000 years ago. So yes Over 85 million years, meaning between 85 million and 2 billion years ago.
Now yes the escapist fucked up and didn't just say 1.97 Billion like it did in the ACTUAL article that is linked in the escapist article.
It's Atlant.... oh why did you go and ruin everyone's fun.
Sneezeguard: I wonder if people lived there or if there's any historical records of them if they did that now's been taken for myth or legend.
No. It's estimated that it existed over 85 MILLION years ago. No humans were around then. No civilization was around at the time. The only thing that might be found there are rocks and possible a number of rare fossils if any.
DINOSAUR PEOPLE. It was in fact a giant elevator built by dinosaurs, that used it to escape the meteor and make an underground society... Now we await, the journey to the centre of the earth!
Easy just press B1 on that dinosaur space elevator.
Remains of Ancient Continent Discovered Under Indian Ocean
The ancient microcontinent of Mauritia may lie between Madagascar and India.
A study by geologists at the University of Oslo has uncovered that the ancient microcontinent of Mauritia is likely drowned beneath the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and India. Mauritia would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. Grain-by-grain analysis of sand on the beaches of Mauritius, in the Indian ocean, revealed zircons - tiny crystals of zirconium silicate that are resistant to erosion. The zircons would have crystallized some 660 million years ago. The geologists propose that volcanic eruptions on the bottom of the sea brought shards of the ancient continent to Earth's surface, which eroded in the sea and washed up on the more geologically recent island. The only other possible source of zircons would be Madagascar, across the ocean from Mauritius, where there's an outcrop of continental crust.
So where, then, did the continent go? Areas of crust under the Indian Ocean are three to five times thicker than the average thickness of Earth's crust. Those areas of thickness may be the remains of the landmass Mauritia, which would have split from Madagascar and subsequently sank due to stretching and thinning of crust. It's likely that Mauritia would have been an island about three times as big as Crete.
Source: Nature
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