00:00Do you know how many continents there are on Earth?
00:04That's an easy one, seven.
00:06But wait a second, aren't Europe and Asia one large continent, Eurasia?
00:11It looks so when you look at the world map.
00:14Well, scientists think differently.
00:16They don't just look at bodies of land sticking out of the sea.
00:20Geoscientists study the types of rock that continents are made from.
00:23When you see the world from their perspective, the number of continents actually increases.
00:28Yes, they are not a myth.
00:31Lost continents exist.
00:32Or at least they used to.
00:34They are hiding under other landmasses.
00:37Peek-a-boo!
00:38Researchers have recently discovered one continent just like that.
00:41It's called Greater Adria.
00:44Sound familiar?
00:45Yes, it has something to do with the Adriatic Sea.
00:49This lost continent is completely buried under Europe.
00:52It collided with Europe and started to sink under it a long time ago.
00:56Today, it lies beneath Italy, Greece, and the Baltics.
01:00Its size and even shape match that of Greenland, the world's largest island.
01:05But how did geoscientists find Greater Adria?
01:08It's no longer visible, but it left some clues.
01:12Parts of it were embedded in the Alps.
01:14Other chunks were incorporated into present-day Italy and Croatia,
01:18on the other side of the Adriatic Sea.
01:20Limestone rocks from the former continent started to change
01:24once they were under the European landmass.
01:27Tremendous heat and pressure spread over tens of millions of years
01:31changed their structure.
01:33Out goes the limestone, in comes the marble.
01:36All the Greek and Roman temples you admired on your summer vacation
01:39were constructed using this marble.
01:41It was sort of a going-away gift from a long-lost continent.
01:48Greater Adria camouflaged itself well for thousands of years.
01:52But other lost continents were hiding in plain sight.
01:55Have you heard of Earth's 8th continent, Zealandia?
01:59Probably not, because it sits under the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
02:0395% of Zealandia is now underwater.
02:06Can you guess where exactly?
02:08Its name is a good hint.
02:09Under New Zealand.
02:11If you open Google Maps, you can see its outline.
02:14Look for a lighter shade of blue in the ocean.
02:17It should stretch from New Caledonia to New Zealand.
02:20This bump in the ocean floor used to be above sea level.
02:24It was about two-thirds of Australia
02:26and more than twice the landmass of Greater Adria in size.
02:30We can spot Zealandia today because it hasn't sunk too low.
02:34And that's the best way to discover other lost continents.
02:38Imagine the Earth without the oceans.
02:40The bottom of the sea isn't flat.
02:42There are mountains and trenches.
02:44You could put Mount Everest in the deepest of them,
02:47and there would still be 7,000 feet between it and sea level.
02:51This trench got so deep because of a geological process called subduction.
02:56The Pacific Plate got under the Philippine Plate.
02:59Earth's crust is made out of those plates that float in a sea of molten rock.
03:04Then they bump into each other, one goes down while the other one rises.
03:09That's how Greater Adria ended up under the European continent.
03:13Our planet is constantly on the go.
03:16We don't notice this process because it happens deep beneath our feet.
03:20120 million years ago, Australia and Antarctica were a single piece of land.
03:26Yep, the coldest and one of the hottest places on Earth were once the same territory.
03:32Antarctica said goodbye to Australia, but it didn't leave empty-handed.
03:36Today, there is an oceanic plateau in the Indian Ocean.
03:40The word plateau comes from French, and it means elevated flatland.
03:45And the name of this land sounds like the title of a Hollywood movie, Broken Ridge.
03:50Long ago, it was connected to another lost continent.
03:54Scientists believe that it made a land bridge between India and Antarctica.
03:59What was this land like?
04:00The answer possibly lies in a tiny archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean.
04:06These islands are all that is left of an ancient landmass.
04:10They have a cold climate.
04:12The islands feature glaciers because they're so close to Antarctica.
04:16But in the past, the climate must have been temperate with plenty of rainfall.
04:20The animals and plants would have been similar to those that we find in tropical regions today.
04:25The lost continent's landscape probably resembled that of New Zealand.
04:30Now, while we're in the area, can you guess which continent the island state of Madagascar once belonged to?
04:37If you guessed Africa, sorry, you were wrong.
04:40Hey, don't feel bad.
04:42Look up and to the right of the map.
04:44The correct answer is India.
04:46Some 120 million years ago, I wasn't around then,
04:50India separated from the African continent and went northeast.
04:54Madagascar wasn't quick enough and ended up as an island off the southeast coast of Africa.
04:59But there is evidence of an even greater landmass, the lost continent of Mauritia.
05:06Scientists found traces of the ancient landmass under the island of Mauritius.
05:10Today, it's a tourist hotspot.
05:13But millions of years ago, it was a real hotspot.
05:16Volcanoes and all.
05:18That's how scientists were able to retrace the steppes of Mauritia.
05:21They found a mineral that exists in rocks, which lava spews out after an eruption.
05:27The long-lost land once covered the area from Mauritius to the west coast of India.
05:32Imagine if that land existed today.
05:34It would form a great mix of Indian and African cultures.
05:38The local dishes would definitely be spicy.
05:41Now, speaking of spicy, have you had Indonesian food recently?
05:45Just 50,000 years ago, southeast Asia looked much different.
05:50There was no Sumatra, Borneo, Java, or even Australia.
05:54Just Sunda and Sa'ul, two continental masses that were divided by a deepwater trench.
06:00You had the extension of mainland southeast Asia on one side and the greater Australia on the other.
06:07Back then, Bali stood at the southernmost tip of Asia.
06:10Biologists were among the first scientists to notice the split.
06:15Species developed differently on Sunda and Sa'ul.
06:18That's why Australia has unique animals, such as the kangaroo, wombat, and platypus.
06:24And did you know that a giant kangaroo once roamed the island of New Guinea?
06:29That's because, up until the end of the last age, there was a land bridge to Australia.
06:34Today, the two islands are separated by the Torres Strait.
06:37But it's quite shallow, less than 65 feet.
06:40It's a reminder that this was once a single landmass called Sa'ul.
06:45Another ocean strait that isn't too deep separates Asia from North America.
06:50The Bering Strait sits today in the place of Beringia.
06:54This ancient landmass wasn't that big.
06:56It stretched 1,000 miles from north to south.
06:59That's just a third of the driving distance from Los Angeles to New York.
07:04Beringia was important for another reason.
07:06During the Ice Ages, it connected the whole world.
07:09Water levels were 300 feet lower than they are today.
07:13If they went even lower, you could walk from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa all the way to Cape Horn in South America.
07:20Talk about the ultimate backpacking route.
07:23Today, you can hop on an airplane and fly to pretty much any place on the globe.
07:29The world has never seemed smaller, has it?
07:32Well, it has.
07:33Some 300 to 200 million years ago, we were all one world, literally.
07:38Pangaea was a supercontinent that included all of the continents.
07:43Its name is in Greek, and it simply means all Earth.
07:47But Pangaea started to crack up.
07:50The biggest gap formed between the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other.
07:55Seawater soon started pouring in, and that's how we got the Atlantic Ocean.
08:00This process is by no means over.
08:03While you are watching this video, North America is drifting further and further away from Europe at the rate of one inch per year.
08:11Doesn't seem much when compared to the average human lifespan, but in the end, all the continents will reconnect with each other, forming a supercontinent.
08:21And it wouldn't be the first time in Earth history that this happens.
08:24Honestly, I'm not going to wait around for that.
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