In ancient times, Earth's current continents were joined together in a giant supercontinent called Pangaea. Pangaea split into two parts: Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. The major parts of the two large continents became Europe, Asia, and North America. Other scattered parts became present-day Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Australia.
In a recent scientific discovery, researchers have discovered another continent that was born from a part of the giant continent Gondwana. This new continent is called Greater Adria and is considered as an 8th continent besides the continents today. Most of the Adria continent is located right under Europe.
The continent of Greater Adria is identified on the map
"The deepest parts of the continent of Adria are now 1,500 km below Greece," said study leader Van Hinsbergen.
During his research, Professor Van Hinsbergen speculated that a geological force between 100 million and 120 million years ago slowly separated a land mass covering more than 2 million square kilometers.2(roughly the size of Greenland today) in southern Europe. This continent was half submerged under the ocean, but in the process, a top layer separated and rose to form the geological precursor to the great mountains in more than 30 European countries today, in the Alps, Apennines, Balkans, Greece, Turkey.
Remnants of a lost continent visible in the Taurus Mountains, Türkiye
Over the course of 120 million years, the collision of Earth’s tectonic plates forced Adria to lie dormant beneath the surface of southern Europe. However, some fragments of Adria did not completely sink beneath the surface of Europe. Instead, they rose to the surface and became part of Italy (including cities like Turin and Venice), or the Istria region of Croatia.
We may have set foot on this 8th continent while wandering in Italy.
In January 2017, researchers announced the discovery of a lost continent left over from the supercontinent Gondwana. The remnant, covered in lava, now lies under Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. In September 2017, another team found the lost continent of Zealandia through ocean drilling in the South Pacific. So Greater Adria is not the first lost continent to be found, and it probably won’t be the last.
