New Microcontinent Discovered Between Greenland and Canada

JAKARTA – An exciting discovery has recently rocked the world of science. Microcontinent has just been discovered in Davis Strait, located between Baffin Island in southeastern Canada and Greenland in the southwest.

The discovery is the result of research by scientists from the UK and Sweden, who used gravity data and seismic reflection data to map this microcontinent and reconstruct the history of plate tectonics in the region.

As reported by Science Alert. although the geology of this region has long been studied, there are still many mysteries surrounding it. The research team explains in their paper that “A prolonged period of seafloor rifting and spreading between Greenland and North America formed the oceanic basins of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, connected by the Davis Strait.” However, experts have previously been unable to explain the origin of the extremely thick continental crust in the seaway.

Reconstructing the region’s past when Greenland separated from Canada reveals that the extremely thick crust was actually its own microcontinent. Microcontinents are tectonic blocks that have broken off from continents and are surrounded by thinner oceanic crust.

Researchers believe that the rift that led to the formation of this microcontinent began about 118 million years ago, and the breakup of the continent occurred about 61.27 million years ago in the Labrador Sea.

These continents continued to break apart, before Greenland collided and merged with the North American plate. It was during this time that new microcontinents were created.

This discovery is expected to help scientists better understand plate tectonics and the dangers it can pose to life on Earth.

The research team concluded that “Overall, this study not only identifies several new first-order tectonic features on Earth, the Pre-UTM micro-protocontinent and Davis Strait, but also demonstrates strong lithospheric control over the direction of plate motion.”

Further research into this phenomenon is essential to understanding how plate tectonics work on our planet.

(wbs)