Newly Discovered 8th Continent Is Called Zealandia

Scientists have recently discovered what seems to be the 8th continent of the world--with 94 percent of the land is submerged underwater. It's called Zealandia, after it has been revealed that it comprises New Zealand and New Caledonia islands.

Located in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, the continent ranges around 3 million square miles and is believed to have connected the islands by a submerged continental crust. Moreover, Zealandia, as many scientists put to claim, is considered as the youngest, thinnest and most submerged land among other continents.

After Zealandia's split from the supercontinent Gondwanaland around 83 million years ago, it might have caused the continent to stretch and thinned, therefore, reducing its buoyancy and sunk. Campbell believed that Zealandia is the son of Gondwanaland, father of New Zealand.

This is not the first time Zealandia was placed in the limelight of news headers. In 2007, one of the researchers of New Zealand's geoscience agency, Hamish Campbell, theorized that Zealandia was a massive continental crust where New Zealand is only the tip.

But, he and his team cannot guarantee if there were any lands left from Zealandia. "The geological evidence at present is too weak, so we are logically forced to consider the possibility that the whole of Zealandia may have sunk," Campbell told Stuff New Zealand.

If the continent is believed to have remnants of its islands, it will have included the Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Islands, and the Chatham Islands in its territory. Another theory of the newly discovered continent is that it is thought to have no fauna and flora growing there. However, the notion was debunked in 2006 upon the discovery of a fossil mammal jaw during the Miocene period in the Otago region of the continent.

Earlier this month, researchers at the South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand has found evidence of an ancient continent called 'Mauritia,' after discovering it under the island of Mauritius by the Indian Ocean.