Fragments of the downed "lost continent" have been found in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and India, reports BBC News
According to a new study, a continent known as Mauritia detached 60 million years ago when Madagascar and India drifted apart and has been lying hidden under a layer of lava under the Indian Ocean.
A study that was published in the journal Nature Geoscience, states scientists analyzed beach sand on Mauritius that contained ancient zircons between 660 million and about 2 billion years old.
Professor Trond Torsvik from the University of Oslo, Norway, stated that the grains of sand from the beaches contained zircon, which is usually found in a continents crust that is very old.
"The zircon points to the existence of fragments of an ancient microcontinent beneath the island (Mauritius), pieces of which were brought to the surface by recent volcanic activity," the article in Nature Geoscience said.
Torsvik said that remains of the lost continent could be found 10 kms beneath Mauritius and under a swathe of the Indian Ocean. The professor said the continent could extend across years of history, from the time the earth was barren and had dinosaurs roam the planet.
"At the moment the Seychelles is a piece of granite, or continental crust, which is sitting practically in the middle of the Indian Ocean," Torsvik said. "But once upon a time, it was sitting north of Madagascar. And what we are saying is that maybe this was much bigger, and there are many of these continental fragments that are spread around in the ocean."
However, the professor said that much more investigation is required to fully understand how much of the continent still remains.
