Scientists Discover Ancient Continent ‘Mauritia’ Under Island Of Mauritius

It might sound implausible, but at the bottom of the deep Indian Ocean, one piece of ancient continent Mauritia was found on the famous island of Mauritius has been recently discovered by a research team led by the South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand.

According to CNN, the scientists at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa have discovered the ancient continent Mauritia which is believed to be a leftover from the breakup of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. The splitting of the mainland began 200 million years ago, and the evidence takes the form of ancient zircon minerals which were found in the younger rocks.

The ancient continent Mauritia is located under the popular island destination of Mauritius where the remains scattered across the Indian Ocean basin. The said ancient continent Mauritia was sandwiched between India and Madagascar.

The existence of the ancient continent Mauritia was discovered when some parts of the Indian Ocean were found to have stronger gravitational fields compared to others that indicate thicker crusts. Other theories suggest that chunks of land had sunk and were attached to the ocean crust below which led to the formation of ancient continent Mauritia.

According to the New Scientists, Mauritius is the only place which contains a strong gravitational pull. Lewis Ashwal from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa even proposed that there is a volcanic island sitting on the piece of ancient continent Mauritia.

"This breakup did not involve a mere splitting of the ancient super-continent of Gondwana, but "a complex splintering took place with fragments of continental crust of variable sizes left adrift within the evolving Indian Ocean basin," Ashwal said.

Mauritius, where the ancient continent Mauritia is located, is already 8 million years old. Some zircon crystals found in the island beaches are almost 2 billion years old. Volcanic eruptions were the reasons for the existence of the zircon from the ancient rock below.

The said zircon crystals in Mauritius have undergone a detailed analysis and come to reconstruct the geological history of the ancient continent Mauritia.