Argoland, a continent lacking for 155 million years, discovered off Australia

Argoland, now dispersed as an archipelago separated by ocean basins, initially drifted northwest, contributing to the formation of a number of Southeast Asian islands.

Geologists from Utrecht College within the Netherlands have found Argoland, a landmass that indifferent from modern-day western Australia 155 million years in the past. This elusive 3,106-mile stretch, as soon as an integral a part of the supercontinent Gondwana, broke into shards beneath the jungles of Indonesia and Myanmar.

Argoland, now dispersed as an archipelago separated by ocean basins, initially drifted northwest, contributing to the formation of a number of Southeast Asian islands.

The geologists, led by Eldert Advokaat and Douwe van Hinsbergen, undertook a seven-year investigation, evaluating Argoland to a different prehistoric continent, Higher Adria, rediscovered in 2019. Like Adria, Argoland splintered into a number of fragments.

The breakthrough got here when Advokaat and his staff recognized essential clues within the geological programs of the Himalayas and the Philippines. These fragments of Argoland, reaching their locations concurrently, fashioned an archipelago quite than a unified landmass.

It was roughly 215 million years in the past that an occasion triggered an accelerated breakup, ensuing within the continent shattering into skinny items.