A new research has found evidences of a landmass that could have existed between 1.1 billion to 750 million years ago in the Neoproterozoic era. Scientists claimed to have discovered the remains of this lost ancient continent, which is buried under huge masses of lava between Madagascar and India.
The continent fragments known as 'mauritia' were detached from Madagascar and
India about 60 million years ago, and were drifted apart. This strip of land was eventually fragmented and vanished in the ocean and a new modern
world started to take shape. The study was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
In the same way, Eastern Gondwana fragmented some 170 million years ago and in turn formed Madagascar, India, Australia and Antarctica, which then migrated to different positions. Plumes (a form of effluence in water or emissions in air) which are currently present underneath the islands Marion and Reunion appear to have played a role in the emergence of the Indian Ocean.
The research done by some geoscientists from South Africa, Britain, Norway and Germany says that the sand grains from the beach of Mauritius contain semi-precious zircons, aged between 660 and 1970 million years. Dr Bernhard Steinberger of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said: “…It shows the position of the plates relative to the two hotspots at the time of the rupture, which points towards a causal relation.”
He also said: “On the other hand, we were able to show that the continent fragments continued to wander almost exactly over the Reunion plume, which explains how they were covered by volcanic rock.” Researchers said it, therefore, appears that such micro-continents in the ocean occur more frequently than previously thought, Financial Express reported.
