Iceland may be the tip of a sunken continent

[Judi Lynn]

By Tom Metcalfe - Live Science Contributor about 2 hours ago

'Icelandia' was lost to the sea 10 million years ago.



(Image credit: Norbert Figueroa / EyeEm via Getty Images)

Iceland may be the last exposed remnant of a nearly Texas-size continent — called Icelandia — that sank beneath the North Atlantic Ocean about 10 million years ago, according to a new theory proposed by an international team of geophysicists and geologists.

The theory goes against long-standing ideas about the formation of Iceland and the North Atlantic, but the researchers say the theory explains both the geological features of the ocean floor and why Earth's crust beneath Iceland is so much thicker than it should be. Outside experts not affiliated with the research told Live Science they are skeptical that Icelandia exists based on the evidence collected so far.

Even so, if geological studies prove the theory, the radical new idea of a sunken continent could have implications for the ownership of any fuels found beneath the seafloor, which under international law belong to a country that can show their continental crust extends that far.

"The region that's got continental material underneath, it stretched from Greenland to Scandinavia," said Gillian Foulger, lead author of "Icelandia," a chapter in the new book "In the Footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton: New Ideas in Earth Science" (Geological Society of America, 2021) that describes the new theory. "Some of it in the west and east has now sunk below the surface of the water, but it's still standing higher than it should. … If the sea level dropped 600 meters [2,000 feet], then we would see a lot more land above the surface of the ocean," Foulger, an emeritus professor of geophysics at Durham University in the United Kingdom, told Live Science.



The continent of "Icelandia" may have stretched between Greenland and Scandinavia until about 10 million years ago, while another now-submerged region west of Britain and Ireland formed part of "Greater Icelandia." (Image credit: Gillian Foulger/Google Maps)

More:
https://www.livescience.com/iceland-tip-of-lost-sunken-continent.html?utm_source=notification

[abqtommy]

1. NOTE: 10 million years ago there were no PEOPLE around so don't blame us!