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Study Suggests Earth Has Only Six Continents and Not Seven; 'The North American and European Plates Have Not Officially Broken Up'

Before this examination, researchers had noted similarities between an area in Africa known as the Afra region and the creation of Iceland.
PUBLISHED JAN 30, 2025
Close-up of Globe (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels/Photo by NastyaSensei)
Close-up of Globe (Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels/Photo by NastyaSensei)

Examinations of a strip of land stretching from Greenland through Iceland to the Faroe Islands have given researchers new insights regarding continents. The analysis unveiled to them that there is a huge possibility that the North American and Eurasian plates may not have fully ruptured 52 million years ago as they previously believed, stated Earth. If this finding comes out to be true then it implies that North America and Europe are one large body and not two separate continents. Findings regarding these plates have been published in the journal Gondwana Research.

Diagram of divergent tectonic plate boundary (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons/Photo by domdomegg)
Diagram of divergent tectonic plate boundary (Representative Image Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photo by domdomegg)

All the land focussed on by the study was buried. The reason experts wanted to explore this stretch again was because they wanted to observe the tectonic plates. In many cases, it was noted that several tectonic plates even after several millenniums were moving in unexpected ways. Before this examination, researchers had noted similarities between an area in Africa known as the Afra region and the creation of Iceland. Both areas had pieces of submerged continental crust buried beneath volcanic rock. This implies that both of these places' geologic structures are more complex than previously understood. 

The similarity encouraged experts to compare how rifting happened in both landmasses. They noted that Iceland, along with the Greenland Iceland Faroes Ridge (GIFR) had geological fragments belonging to both European and North American tectonic plates. This made experts speculate that these landforms are actually not separate but instead a part of a larger continental structure. This phenomenon was named 'Rifted Oceanic Magmatic Plateau,' or ROMP by researchers. This implied that the splitting between North American and Eurasian plates had not finished completely, challenging previous assertions. As per the observation of the researchers, the procedure is still ongoing. "They are, in fact, still stretching and in the process of breaking apart," Dr Jordan Phethean, a lecturer in Earth Science at the University of Derby stated.



 

Dr. Phethean believes the research is equal to finding the 'Lost City of Atlantis' because the team has unearthed "fragments of lost continent submerged beneath the sea and kilometers of thin lava flows." Researchers understand that the study's findings may require more backing and proof to convince authorities that there are six continents in total.

"It is controversial to suggest that the GIFR contains a large amount of continental crust within it and that the European and North American tectonic plates have perhaps not yet officially broken up," Dr. Phethean admitted, stated The Brighter Side. Hence, researchers are currently in the process of conducting more tests on Iceland's volcanic rocks and collecting further evidence about their assertion. The team will be incorporating techniques like computer simulations and plate tectonic modeling to understand more about ROMP.

 The proposed plate tectonic model in GPlates overlain with the present-day crustal thickness data and the approximate location and angle of MOR and FZ segments (Image Source:  Gondwana Research)
The proposed plate tectonic model in GPlates overlain with the present-day crustal thickness data and the approximate location and angle of MOR and FZ segments (Image Source: Gondwana Research)

Before this finding, Dr. Phethean was part of another study that claimed the presence of a hidden "proto-microcontinent" between Canada and Greenland. The landmass was just beneath Davis Strait, just off Baffin Island. This landform was possibly created 60 million years ago and is proof of how shifting plates influence smaller fragments of land over many millenniums.

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