Found remains of a lost continent under the Indian ocean – LA NACION (Argentina)

Scientists assure that this is the continent Gondwana, which broke up 200 million years ago

The Mauritius is a volcanic island of nine million years. Photo: LA NACION

A group of scientists in the Indian ocean discovered under the waters of the Island of Mauritius traces of the ancient continent called Gondwana, which broke up 200 million years ago. The main track of the finding, published this week by the british journal Nature Communications, was a group of rocks (zircono) that date back over 3000 million years old and were found under the water and on the surface of this volcanic island.

The experts realized that it was not normal to find traces of this ancient mineral -more than 3000 years and occurs mainly in granites of the continents – on the surface of an island that has only nine million years. The study was led by geologist, Lewis Ashwal, University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), Michael Wiedenbeck, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) and Trond Torsvik, from the University of Oslo.

that’s why ensure that it is a small piece of the ancient continent that broke from the island of Madagascar, when Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica broke away and formed the Indian ocean.

The location of the lost continent. Photo: THE NATION / Nature Communications

The zircones contain traces of uranium, lead and thorium. Thanks to that survive very well with the geological process, can be dated with great precision.

“The fact that we have found zircones of this age shows that in Mauritius there are materials of the earth’s crust are much older, that could only originate in one continent,” said Lewis Ashwal in a statement.

This is not the first time you are zircones on the island. A study done in 2013 found traces of the mineral in the sand of the beach. However, the investigation has received some criticism, based on the possibility that the mineral had come to the island by action of the wind. “The fact that we find the zircones old in the rock (trachyte of 6 million years) corroborates the previous study, and refutes any suggestion of zircones airborne or transported by the waves to explain the above results,” added Ashwal.