TIL of the continent "Zealandia", a large, mostly submerged continent in the Pacific Ocean which New Zealand is a part of.
Zealandia - Wikipedia
If submerged land can be called continents, where's the line between what is and isn't a continent?
I think the reason Zealandia is called a "submerged continent" is because it is made of continental crust rather than oceanic crust.
But IMO the best geologic definition of continents is by tectonic plates, which mostly matches up with the cultural definitions of the continents.
For the major continents, we have these plates:
There are several smaller plates too, like the Caribbean, Indian, and Arabian plates. IMO, we should consider these independent continents.
There is also a dedicated Pacific plate. The ring of fire is the border of this plate.
New Zealand / Zealandia is on the ring of fire. Half on the Australian plate, half on the Pacific plate. You can actually see the border of the two plates when you look at the topographical map of Zealandia.
Oceanic crust is heavier, denser, and composed of different rocks than continental crust.
It's just this, just simple geology.
The water level is actually irrelevant.
The OP states it was part of Gondwana, maybe that's what makes it different.
If you click through to the microcontinent link that seems to support the idea of microcontinents being pieces broken off a bigger one. But with everything coming from Gondwana then that means all the existing ones are fragments, and the only reason other fragments aren't considered continents is size (e.g. Madigascar).
Zealandia seems to be the Pluto of continents. Too small to be a continent but much larger than the largest microcontinent.
Geographical continents and geological continents aren't quite the same thing.
That Civilization 6 uses geological continents when the 'continent' key word is used where every other game in the series uses geographical continents for that key word still bugs me.
That's a debate that transcends culture. Some cultures say there are seven, some say six, and yet others say five.
Seven is wrong no matter your definition of continent, unless you count New Zealand or "because racism."
Depending on your definition there are between four and nine continents, but the definition that includes Europe to make a total of seven necessitates India being its own continent without racism being the primary reason why Europe is a continent and India is not.
(Also if it transcended culture it wouldn't depend on culture for the answer)
(Also some people do say there are seven, because India is a continent with a land barrier and a tectonic plate and Europe is not)
Fault lines? Thats all I got
Mannnnnn, I wanna live on a billion year old, largely submerged continent. Shit looks dope af. And they seemed to kind win at Pandemic. Great share, thanks!
With rising sea levels it might end up as No Zealand
All this time we've been keeping our true power hidden.
Also, if you mention Zealandia in New Zealand, people will look at you blankly and say "The bird sanctuary?"
Isn't it called Oceania? Or are they different?
Oceania tends to refer to the region, including both Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the many small island nations.
Sometimes, we are "collectivly" treated as a continent, despite being almost all island nations with no land boarders.
Well we don’t call you landiania
Worldbuilding enthusiasts start heavy breathing
Zealandia shall rise again!
Glomar explores harder*
Wait until you hear about Doggerland.
Just wait until you hear about how they discovered Doggerland once had people on it!
(That said, Doggerland wasn't a continent.)
During the early Holocene, the exposed land area of Doggerland stretched across the region between what is now the east coast of Great Britain, the Netherlands, the western coast of Germany and the Danish peninsula of Jutland.
So, it was a bit bigger.
Btw, UK and europe were all connected, until the big glacial seas from thawing ice broke loose.
I believe Atlas Pro did a video on it one time. I'll go check.
Edit: Yep
wtf it looks like a fat New Zealand. is there an even slimmer version inside NZ?
Excellent!
Any undiscovered cave entrances from the surfaced part?
And we'll never get it back at the rate we're going. Come on ice age 2!
Old Zealand gang
That's in Frisia/whatever fake country controls it for now
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeland
Friesland is a province, smh
Here's me hoping the next cataclysm drains the oceans by a few hundred feet so we can establish New Old Zealand 🇳🇿
Hear ye Nozzies!