Scientist claim they just found a new continent

Question

The claim seems about true, they are saying that the international Ocean Discovery Program, researchers on board dug 1,000 meters into the ocean floor off the South Island of New Zealand in January 2025. In order to investigate the subduction zone dynamics, they focused on the northern edge of Zealandia. The majority of the continent was submerged by tectonic processes, as demonstrated by the volcanic ash layers and fault structures found in core samples taken from the drill site 25 million years ago.

Answer 1

MSN published this. According to media bias/fact check: "Overall, we rate MSN News strongly Left-Center biased, with most stories coming from Left-Center sources. We also rate them High for factual reporting because the majority of sources used are credible media outlets." It is worth mentioning that the headline of the MSN source is different than the claim posted here. The MSN headline is: "Scientists find a continent missing from maps for 375 years," which is not really as misleading as the posted claim. Zealandia is the 8th continent and it was officially discovered all the way back in 2017 (theweek.com), so no, scientists did not just find a new continent. Back in 2017, multiple credible news outlets reported on this, including NBC. So while there are new discoveries happening now, this 8th continent is nothing new.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/scientists-find-a-continent-missing-from-maps-for-375-years/ar-AA1Qfbwl

https://theweek.com/history/all-about-zealandia-the-earths-potential-8th-continent

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/scientists-say-they-ve-discovered-hidden-continent-under-new-zealand-n722796

Answer 2

Zealandia, first coined in the mid 90s by Bruce Luyendyk, is often referred to as either a Submerged Continent or Microcontinent. It was officially recognized as an eighth continent in 2017. The claim is then misleading, as scientists did not 'just' find a new continent. Zealandia had been speculated to exist for at least 300 years when Abel Tasman 'discovered' it, and it was officially labeled so in 2017. 

Answer 3

1. Zealandia is a submerged continent that can be found in the South Pacific ocean that is attached to New Zealand and New Caledonia. It was a part of a super continent before it split and was submerged 100 million years ago. It is difficult to find information out about this “hidden” continent.

2. This study explains how Zealandia is a submerged continent with only 94% of its surface above sea level, which is the country of New Zealand. It can be referred to as a “continent” technically, but mostly inhabitable. 

https://rock.geosociety.org/net/gsatoday/archive/27/3/article/GSATG321A.1.htm 

3. This article summarizes that there are lots of unknown pieces of information about Zealandia that are difficult to answer because they require deep sea level testing of geological layers.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230928-the-mysteries-of-the-worlds-eighth-continent 

Zealandia broke away from the super continent Gondwana due to volcanic activity. The crust of Zealandia was weakened during its separation and this could have contributed to its sinking.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/zealandia-earths-hidden-continent-was-torn-from-supercontinent-gondwana-in-flood-of-fire-100-million-years-ago 

 4. The article from BBC might have some bias because it is generally left-centered, but considering this article is reviewing a scientific study, the article should be highly reliable and have little bias to it. The other two sources I used are scientific websites that were informational with little to no bias.

5. The sources I cited all support the claim that technically the continent is “hidden”, but I would say that the claim that scientists “discovered a new continent” is exaggerated. The continent is 94% submerged which makes it mostly inhabitable except for New Zealand and New Caledonia, but it can be referred to as a continent because it meets the criteria.

6. The evidence that there is not much known about Zealandia due to the fact that geological testing is difficult due to how deep the crust is. Also the evidence that the continent is almost fully submerged undermines the initial claim.

Answer 4

This is true in some ways, but overall is misleading. The idea of an 8th continent has been around since 1995 and was discovered hundreds of years before that. https://rock.geosociety.org/net/gsatoday/archive/27/3/article/GSATG321A.1.htm

This article shows the true origin of Zealand and its timeline of discoveries. The Article linked is true, but they did not do deep enough research and capitalized on the new activity around the continent or the micro-continent. To create a clickbait article that generates more views because of the exciting title. The news source MSN is reliable. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/msn-com/ as this bias check conveys as well.

This article by the BBC does a better job at shedding light on the new findings without exaggerating the prominence of what they mean. I think the topic is cool, but the article is slightly misleading, and they capitalized to get more clicks on their site.

Answer 5

This claim seems to be true. many scientists argue that there is a new, largely submerged continent called Zealandia. this landmass covers around 4.9 million KM but about 94% of it is underwater. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/zealandia-submerged-continent-under-new-zealand/ 

it has elevated continental crust, a variety of rock types, well defined bounudries and crust that is signifcantly thicker than surrounding oceanic crust. researchers believe it broke off from implications for understanding continental formation and plate tectonics. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/27/zealandia-drilling-reveals-secrets-of-sunken-lost-continent

Answer 6

This claim is overall true, but slightly misleading. That being said, using MSN as a source for news isn't reliable, because they pull from a lot of different sources with little citation. The person who wrote the article has no qualifications for it that are listed. Also, your hashtag isn't exactly true; this does not mean that we have more countries. The United States National Science Foundation describes Zealandia as "the hidden continent...an area twice the size of India submerged beneath the southwest Pacific Ocean." It took scientists so long to find it because it's submerged, which means it's obviously uninhabitable. It's misleading to say that scientists "just found" Zealandia. According to BBC, "In 2017, a group of geologists hit the headlines when they announced their discovery of Zealandia." This article references the scientific findings posted to the Geological Society of America's website. So yes, scientists discovered what is classified as a new continent, but they did so a while ago, and Zealandia won't be habitable. 

Answer 7

When looking into this claim and doing research on Zealandia, I have found that a microcontinent, Zealandia, was founded in 1995 by Bruce Luyendyk, a geophysicist and oceanographer who works for UCSB, that is just about 93% submerged underwater. It falls off the coast of New Zealand, and while it has been at least partially known about for over 300 years but officially labelled a microcontinent in 2017. According to National Geographic,

 "Zealandia broke off from Antarctica about 100 million years ago, and then from Australia about 80 million years ago", 

with the site also stating how the volcanic activity on Zealandia also is part of reason it is mostly covered by water. Sciencing.org states:

"It was a chain of volcanoes around the present-day Tasman Sea that caused it to split from Australia and Antarctica. During this process, something unusual happened. Tectonic forces pulled the two ends of Zealandia in opposite directions, causing the continental crust to become much thinner than that of the other continents"

Both of these pieces of information found from Science.org and National Geographic help explain why Zealandia was such an interesting geological formation and why so little about it is known in the present day. So yes, this claim is true that a microcontinent, Zealandia, does in fact exist, it has been discovered and looked into long before 2025.

These sources that I have used, Bruce Luyendyk's Map, National Geographic, and Sciencing.org are all reputable sources that have scientific research to back up their claims. Sciencing.org and National Geographic are extremely neutral in the language on their respective sites, stating facts and information with little room for bias. On the other hand, diving into Luyendyk's website, there seems to be a lot of bias in favor of Zealandia's existence and how it should be considered a continent, not a microcontinent. Considering this is the "founder" of Zealandia, this bias makes sense but also when looking into his site, keep in mind his potential bias.

Here is a map created by Luyendyk of Zealandia:

Map of Zealandia: A New interactive map - Bruce Luyendyk 

National Geographic:

Zealandia

Sciencing.org:

What Happened To Earth's Hidden Continent, Zealandia?