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| Found: Prehistoric Indian Ocean Mini-Continent | |
| 2013-02-26 | |
| [An Nahar] Scientists said Sunday they had found traces of a micro-continent hidden underneath the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Ahah! It's Fabled Mu. Madame Blavatsky will be pleased. Someone give her a call on her higher plane of existence. The slab, dubbed Mauritia, was probably formed around 61-83 million years ago after Madagascar split from India, but eventually broke up and became smothered by thick lava deposits, they said. In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists analysed beach sand on Mauritius that contained ancient "The zircon points to the existence of fragments of an ancient micro-continent beneath the island (Mauritius), pieces of which were brought to the surface by recent volcanic activity," said a Nature statement. The Indian Ocean floor may be littered with hidden land fragments that broke off as the once super-continent Pangea split up and formed the continents we know today, the paper suggests. Pangea began to rift about 200 million years ago, yielding Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the north. Gondwana in turn split into Madagascar, Australia, Antarctica and India between 80 and 130 million years ago. The new study suggests that Mauritia became detached when Madagascar and India split up. The Seychelles, it adds, could be like Mauritia -- another continental fragment that, however, is visible.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Ahah! It's Fabled Mu. No, it's the fabled Lemuria. This is exactly where Lemuria was supposed to be. (And it was Lemuria, not Mu, which so fascinated Madame Blavatsky.) Unfortunately, this continent is apparently too old to be Lemuria, since it predates the appearance of mammals. I am disappoint. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2013-02-26 17:41 |
| #7 I had a Madagascar once.... 6 miles per gallon in the city and 12 mpg on the highway and it burned three quarts of oil a week. I gave Madame Blavatsky a call on her higher plane of existence, but I could only reach Willim Q. Judge and he said and I quote here "Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child." |
| Posted by: Thiter Dribble8541 2013-02-26 16:13 |
| #6 Pappy is trying to bring back Pangaea Muggsy. I for one say they separated for a good reason, there were serious rifts among them. Working with them has a hole would be like jumping thru a Ring of Fire. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-02-26 16:04 |
| #5 Family counseling for islands and continents. Happy now? pedantic ass |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-02-26 15:14 |
| #4 As opposed to the historic one, presumably. Grammar, people. It's not just a good idea. |
| Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 2013-02-26 14:47 |
| #3 The new study suggests that Mauritia became detached when Madagascar and India split up I see a whole new field of social work: geologic-family counseling. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2013-02-26 12:04 |
| #2 Oh, yeah? Well there's a chunk of Arkansas that floated up from south of the equator But Arkansas /= scuba gear, Bobby. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-02-26 07:25 |
| #1 Oh, yeah? Well there's a chunk of Arkansas that floated up from south of the equator someplace and got sandwiched into the rest of the North American Plate. That's why Arkansas is the only place within a thousand miles with diamond mines. No, I can't find the link - it was in an old Scientific American article, before it went communist. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2013-02-26 06:20 |