A submerged continent or a sunken continent is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

continental crust Continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called ''sial'' be ...

, extensive in size but mainly

undersea The underwater environment is the region below the surface of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characterist ...

. The terminology is used by some

paleogeologist Historical geology or palaeogeology is a discipline that uses the principles and methods of geology to reconstruct the geological history of Earth. Historical geology examines the vastness of geologic time, measured in billions of years, and inves ...

s and

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

s in reference to some landmasses (none of which are as large as any of the generally recognized

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

s). The definition of this term is unclear. If

continental fragment Continental crustal fragments, partly synonymous with microcontinents, are pieces of continents that have broken off from main continental masses to form distinct islands that are often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin. Caus ...

s and microcontinents smaller than , which is approximately one third of the area of

mainland Australia Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealt ...

, are excluded, then

Zealandia Zealandia (pronounced ), also known as (Māori) or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.Gurnis, M., Hall, C.E., and Lavier, L.L., ...

(approximately ) would be the only geological feature which can be classified as a submerged continent. Other notable submerged landmasses include

Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...

Doggerland Doggerland was an area of land, now submerged beneath the North Sea, that connected Britain to continental Europe. It was flooded by rising sea levels around 6500–6200 BCE. The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral. Geological sur ...

, the

Kerguelen Plateau The Kerguelen Plateau (, ), also known as the Kerguelen–Heard Plateau, is an oceanic plateau and a large igneous province (LIP) located on the Antarctic Plate, in the southern Indian Ocean. It is about to the southwest of Australia and is ...

Mauritia ''Mauritia'' is a genus of fan palms which is native to northern South America and to the Island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. Only two species are currently accepted. References

Mauritia, Trees of South America Trees of Trinidad ...

Sahul __NOTOC__ Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south- ...

, and

Sunda Sunda may refer to: Europe * Sunda, Faroe Islands India * Sunda (asura), an asura brother of Upasunda * Sunda (clan), a clan (gotra) of Jats in Haryana and Rajasthan, India Southeast Asia * Sundanese (disambiguation) ** Sundanese people ...

. Submerged continents have been sought and speculated about in regard to a possible "

lost continent Lost lands are islands or continents believed by some to have existed during pre-history, but to have since disappeared as a result of catastrophic geological phenomena. Legends of lost lands often originated as scholarly or scientific theor ...

" underwater in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. There was also a search in the 1930s for

Lemuria Lemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the di ...

, thought to have been a submerged continent between the Indian and African coasts.

References

Continental fragments Continents {{Topography-stub

See also

References