Scientists have revealed the missing keys to solving the enigma of a missing continent, a 5,000 kilometer long piece of land called Argolandwhich separated from Western Australia and then faded away 155 million years ago, in the Jurassic era.
The existence of Argoland is known thanks to the “void” it left in the seabed: a hidden basin in the depths of the ocean known as the Argo abyssal plain. The configuration of the seabed indicates that this continent moved northwestward and eventually settled where the islands of Southeast Asia are today.
However, under these islands there is not a large continent hidden, but only the remains of small continental fragments that did not fit together, since, among others, they were surrounded by much older ocean basins.
— Douwe van Hinsbergen (@vanHinsbergen) October 23, 2023
Recently, Geologists at Utrecht University in the Netherlands unearthed evidence of the existence of Argoland and They managed to reconstruct the history of this lost continent. They discovered that several of these scattered remains of this ancient landmass are indeed buried beneath parts of Southwest Asian nations such as Indonesia and Myanmar, shedding light on the deep past of this dynamic region.
From Argoland to Argopelago
Geologists Eldert Advokaat and Douwe van Hinsbergen of Utrecht University have traced the trajectory of the separated continent, indicating that the crust of Argoland began to fragment into what they call an “Argopelago” of smaller islands 300 million years ago. At that time, Antarctica, South America, Africa, Australia and India were part of a supercontinent known as Gondwana.
Specifically, these researchers have identified Gondwana-derived blocks and megaunits in southwestern Borneo, Greater Paternoster, East Java, southern Sulawesi, western Burma, and Mount Victoria Land as fragments that together could represent parts of Argoland. , according to a study published in Gondwana Research.
“The situation in Southeast Asia is very different from places like Africa and South America, where a continent split in two. Argoland splintered into many different fragments,” explains Advokaat in a statement from Utrecht University.
Difficult detection task
The scientists also discovered that the hypothesis fits perfectly between the neighboring geological systems of the Himalayas and the Philippines.. In addition, they found that the disintegration of Argoland accelerated about 215 million years ago, which explains why the “continent” became so fragmented, making it difficult to detect until now.
This is largely because, as scientists explain, some lighter continents can be partially submerged below sea level, as happened with the lost continent of Greater Adria. However, in the case of Greater Adria, the upper layer remained and folded to form the mountains of southern Europe. By contrast, Argoland left no trace of folded rock strata, which differentiates it from this geological process.
“We were literally dealing with islands of information, which is why our investigation took so long. We spent seven years putting the puzzle together,” explains Advokaat.
Despite the time spent and the enormous effort of scientists, these reconstructions are vital to understanding processes such as the evolution of biodiversity and climate, or to find raw materials. And at a more fundamental level “to understand how mountains are formed or figure out the driving forces of plate tectonics; “two closely related phenomena,” the researchers point out.
Argoland is not the only “lost” continent that has been discovered. Recently, Zealandia was confirmed to be real, as was the lost continent of Balkanatolia.