This week , 30 scientist will get a two - monthdrilling expeditionto understand what happens when a whole continent sinks beneath the waves . The landmass in question is calledZealandia , a submerged continent near Australia with the island of New Zealand as the above - water part .
The expedition , which was direct by the International Ocean Discovery Program ( IODP ) , will drill at six sites in the Tasman Sea , where the profundity of the ocean ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 meters ( 3,300 to 16,400 metrical foot ) . The goal is to collect deposit from deep beneath the seafloor . They will bore 300 to 800 meter ( 1,000 to 2,600 foot ) into the sunken ground at each emplacement . The sampling will hopefully clarify interrogation regarding the area ’s crustal plate tectonic processes and the Earth ’s past mood .
“ We ’re really looking at the ripe office in the world to translate how plate subduction initiates , ” expedition co - chief scientist Gerald Dickens , prof of Earth , environmental and erratic science at Rice University , said in astatement . “ This expedition will answer a fate of loaf questions about Zealandia . ”
For most of Earth ’s history , Australia , Antarctica , and Zealandia were a exclusive landmass . Then 85 million geezerhood ago , Zealandia went off on its own . Although submerge now , we know it ’s a continent due to its lighter , more buoyant rocks . pelagic plate tend to subside underneath the continental ones in a summons call subduction , which changes the landscape of the continent . In South America , it formed the Andes . For Zealandia , it started an Atlantis - style cataclysm .
“ Some 50 million years ago , a monolithic transmutation in plate bm pass in the Pacific Ocean , ” said Jamie Allan , program conductor in the National Science Foundation ’s Division of Ocean Sciences , which support IODP . “ It resulted in the diving event of the Pacific Plate under New Zealand , the uplift of New Zealand above the waterline and the developing of a new arc of volcanoes . This IODP military expedition will see at the timing and causes of these changes , as well as refer changes in sea circulation patterns and at last Earth ’s climate . ”
The researchers want to understand precisely what happened in the separation between Zealandia and Australia .
It ’s not just geology that intrigues the dispatch team , though . analytic thinking of Zealandia will help polish climate models of the ancient ground . manakin contend to explicate the era around 50 million years ago , so the data collected from the continent should assist researchers translate more .
