Zealandia (), also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis,[2] is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland83–79 million years ago.[3] It has variously been described as a continental fragment, a microcontinent, a submerged continent, and a continent.[4] The name and concept for Zealandia was proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995.[5]
The land mass may have been completely submerged by about 23 million years ago,
[6][7] and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the
Pacific Ocean.
[8] With a total area of 4,920,000 km
2(1,900,000 sq mi), it is the world's largest current microcontinent, more than twice the size of the next-largest microcontinent and more than half the size of the
Australian continent. As such, and due to other geological considerations, such as crustal thickness and density, it is arguably a continent in its own right.
[9] This was the argument which made news in 2017,
[10] when geologists from
New Zealand,
New Caledonia, and Australia concluded that Zealandia fulfills all the requirements to be considered a continent, rather than a microcontinent or continental fragment.
[4] New Zealand geologist Nick Mortimer has commented that "if it wasn't for the ocean" it would have been recognized as such long ago.
[11]Zealandia supports substantial inshore fisheries and contains gas fields, of which the largest known is New Zealand's Maui gas field, near Taranaki. Permits for oil exploration in the Great South Basin were issued in 2007.[12] Offshore mineral resources include iron sands, volcanic massive sulfides and ferromanganese nodule deposits
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