Iceland May Be Connected to a Sunken Continent Named Icelandia, Study Finds - IGN
A new scientific reports claims that a secret sunken continent might be hiding under Iceland and geologists are referring to it as Icelandia.
A new scientific report claims that there is a secret sunken continent under Iceland.
This news comes by way of StudyFinds, which reports that the belief that Iceland sits atop a sunken continent has long been held by some in the science community.
StudyFinds' report is based off a scientific study published to GeoScienceWorld written by a team that believes Icelandia might be a sunken continent that spans 1 million square kilometers, or 386,102 square miles. Icelandia could stretch from Greenland to Europe and the team's findings place its size at around 230,000 square miles.
However, it stretches to the 386,102 square mile number when discussing Greater Icelandia, which includes additional underwater land west of Britain, according to the report. While it's not yet proven — a lot of very expensive tests will need to take place first to confirm initial findings — if the team does go on to prove Icelandia is a sunken continent, it could prove that Pangea, long thought to have been completely broken up, is not actually broken up in full.
The idea of continental crust existing under Iceland, rather than the oceanic crust long believed to have existed there, stems from the makeup of Iceland and the surrounding areas.
"Until now, Iceland has puzzled geologists as exiting theories that it is built of, and surrounded by, oceanic crust are not supported by multiple geological data," Durham University Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Gillian Foulger, told StudyFind. "For example, the crust under Iceland is over 40km thick — seven times thicker than normal oceanic crust."
"This simply could not be explained. However, when we considered the possibility that this thick crust is continental, our data suddenly all made sense. This led us immediately to realize that the continental region was much bigger than Iceland itself — there is a hidden continent right under the sea."
If it's determined that Icelandia is real, it could change country access to minerals and hydrocarbons in the area, according to StudyFinds.