Discovery of a 60-Million-Year-Old Lost Continent

Researchers at the University of Derby in the UK have announced the discovery of a landmass over 400 kilometers long beneath the Davis Strait, between Canada and Greenland, while studying the tectonic plate movements in the area. The researchers noted that the "newly discovered small primordial continent of the Davis Strait is a tectonic mass that became a separate continent, originating during a 'long period of rifting in the ocean floor between Greenland and North America.'" They described the small primordial continent as larger than other small continents, with a thickness ranging from 17 to 23 kilometers. Typically, the average thickness of a small continent is between 5 to 25 kilometers. It is mentioned that the primary rift between Canada and Greenland began about 118 million years ago, but the ocean floor did not start to expand until 61 million years ago, forming what is known today as the Davis Strait. After about 3 million years, the ocean floor expansion shifted from northeast to southwest, resulting in the separation of the small primordial Davis continent. This shift continued for approximately 33 million years and only stopped when Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island to the north.