so while we wait , as a geologist do you think Zealandia is a continent like a recent paper from Aussie and NZ suggest?
beats all these damn video posts...lol
Hehe, good question! It depends on how you view or define a continent. Given the multitude of ways of defining the American continent for example (be it North/South, North/Mid/South, or a single continent), it is difficult to say what a continent precisely is, let alone the more modern classifications as micro-continent, sub-continent, continental fragment and the like.
If one would define a continent as a landmass generally surrounded by a deeper oceanic basin, then, yes, Zealandia is a continent. It just happens to be mostly covered by water (damn you, Miocenic sea-level rise!). I remember it being roughly the same size as Australia, and being separated by it by only a few km's of ocean.
On the other hand, I usually define in my line of work a continent as a mass of continental crust, floating on the heavier, basaltic, oceanic crust. Zealandia would be a continent following this definition. This continent is then roughly subdivided by a major subduction zone (part of the Ring of Fire, which is pretty well-known). A major subduction zone displacing two continental crusts isn't unheard of (see the Himalayan thrust/subduction zone), but is not very common.
Following this definition, there would/should be much more continents (examples such as Madagaskar, Jan Mayen, the Kerguelen Islands offshore Antarctica. But adding ~10-20 continents to the list children would have to learn in school is a little bit over the top..
So, yes, Zealandia is a continent!
Ps. 2-3 weeks to go! Woohoow!
