Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that explains the movement of Earth's lithospheric plates. This concept, first proposed in the early 20th century and solidified in the 1960s, revolutionised our understanding of Earth's geological processes. According to the theory, Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle, the rocky inner layer above the core. And now, a bold claim has come from a detailed study of the geological processes behind the break-up of European and North American continents.
A team of researchers from University of Derby, led by Dr Jordan Phethean, has claimed that Earth only has six continents, as per a report published in Earth.com.
The researchers have claimed that the break-up of the European and North American continents is not complete and still ongoing.
"The discovery indicates that the North America and Eurasian tectonic plates have not yet actually broken apart, as is traditionally thought to have happened 52 million years ago," the outlet quoted Dr Phethean as saying.
"They are, in fact, still stretching and in the process of breaking apart," he further said.
The new study is based on the study of Iceland, located between the Greenland Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. Till now, it was believed that Iceland was formed 60 million years ago due to friction in the mid-Atlantic ridge.
But the new study challenges this theory, claiming that Iceland and the Greenland Iceland Faroes Ridge (GIFR) also contain pieces of lost and submerged fragments from both the European and North American continents.
Buy proposing this, the researchers suggest that these landforms are not isolated, but interconnected components of a larger continental structure.
The research team has also given a new identity to the geological feature - 'Rifted Oceanic Magmatic Plateau' or ROMP.
"I like to think of this concept as the Earth Science equivalent of finding the Lost City of Atlantis; fragments of lost continent submerged beneath the sea and kilometres of thin lava flows," said Dr Phethean.
"By studying the evolution of rifting in the volcanic Afra region in Africa and comparing this to the behaviour of the Earth in Iceland, we are able to see that these two regions are evolving in very similar ways," he added.
The research is still in its conceptual phase. The team plans to explore volcanic rocks in Iceland for more concrete evidence of ancient continental crust, said the Earth.com report.
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