Scientists Make Groundbreaking Discovery: Lost Continent Drifted Away from Australia 155 Million Years Ago
In a remarkable find, geologists have uncovered evidence of a lost continent that separated from the landmass which eventually became Australia approximately 155 million years ago.
Previous speculation about the existence of this continent, called Argoland, was based on a significant void in Western Australia. However, until now, the evidence was only circumstantial.
A team of researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands has reconstructed the history of Argoland and determined that this 3,100-mile landmass traveled to South Asia before settling more than 18,000 feet below the surface of the Indian Ocean.
Through magnetic and structural geological evidence along the local seafloor, scientists have concluded that this massive fragment separated due to the shifting of tectonic plates, before drifting towards Southeast Asia.
Eldert Advokaat from Utrecht University’s Department of Earth Sciences stated, “The situation in Southeast Asia is very different from places like Africa and South America, where a continent broke neatly into two pieces. Argoland splintered into many different shards.”
To unravel the mystery of Argoland’s journey, researchers used computer reconstructions based on existing geological evidence. They discovered that Argoland broke into multiple pieces and settled around modern-day Indonesia and Myanmar over millions of years.
This groundbreaking discovery fills a significant knowledge gap in understanding the formation of mountains, islands, and undersea geology.
By examining known tectonic “mega-units” in Southeast Asia and northwest Australia, the researchers pieced together remnants of Argoland and proposed how they migrated from their original site.
During the late Jurassic period, around 164 to 145 million years ago, the
