What Does the Mysterious Missing Continent Zealandia Look Like ? | History of the Earth Documentary

? Man has always been fascinated by the depths of the oceans. Water has that something that attracts us, scares us and amazes us at the same time. And for good reason, it is the most present substance on Earth, and, along with air, the main ingredient that allows life as we know it. Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, while 95% of these waters have not yet been explored. This fascination for the abyss, many people have used it to shape various myths and legends, such as that of the lost city of Atlantis. According to this legend, an inhabited city would be completely buried under the sea after being buried by a huge tidal wave, more than 9000 years ago.
Today, it is not Atlantis that we are going to talk about but an eighth continent that exists scientifically as a land. A place that you may have already visited in part, without knowing it. It is Zelandia.
Before we take you on a tour of Zelandia then and now, it is important to go back to where it all began, geologically speaking, because another supercontinent existed before. This is the story of the last of a race of geological titans, a supercontinent called Gondwana.

? As a reminder, the videos are published on SUNDAYS at 6:00 PM.

————————-

? Zelandia: The Vanished Container:
– At the end of the Ediacaran period, some 500 million years ago, the Earth was quite different. Tectonic movements brought together Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India, the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar. Almost to the South Pole, this was the first version of Gondwana. The climate was mild at that time, because the world was warmer. Multicellular organisms had developed, but they were primitive. Many fossils were found showing segmented worms, round jellyfish-like creatures, and sling-like organisms.
Over time, other continents collided with this first Gondwanaland to form Pangea, the “Whole Earth,” approximately 300 million years ago. Pangea was gigantic: the entire continental mass of the planet was merged into a single block dominating the southern hemisphere, surrounded by the largest ocean in history. 20 to 70 million years later, plumes of magma from the Earth’s core began to burn through the crust like a blowtorch, creating a rift between what we now know as Africa, South America and North America. Convection cells associated with these plumes expanded the rift into a new ocean: Tethys, dividing the northern supercontinent called Laurasia, comprising North America, Europe and Asia today, from the southern supercontinent, our fully formed Gondwanaland. The latter loses some of its original parts to Laurasia, such as Florida and parts of Georgia, but it still contains all the landmasses we see today in the southern hemisphere.
And the beginnings of Zelandia are already here.

Here we are in the land of Zelandia. If you have in mind New Zealand and New Caledonia today, the scenery is quite different back then. Yet, on closer inspection, there are still some similarities, elements of nature that have survived the passage of time.
Was modern man present? No, none of the representatives of our species was in place to witness it. The masters of the land, those who ruled Zelandia at that time, were the dinosaurs. The most imposing creatures that the earth has ever sheltered walk the surface of the continent. With a remarkable diversity, predators and prey inhabit Zelandia’s 4.9 square kilometers of total area.

At the time, Zelandia enjoys a subtropical climate. Its hot season is long. As for the cold seasons, they are much milder than in the temperate zones and are accompanied by some rainfall. Fauna and flora abound on the continental block. There is an exponential growth of forests, which, combined with the humid climate, creates a warm environment conducive to life. This is why the animals of the time reach colossal sizes, whether on land or in the seas.

————————-

? On the agenda today:
– 00:00 – Introduction
– 02:10 – The history of Gondwana and Zelandia
– 17:14 – The evolution of Zelandia
– 23:48 – Discovery of Zelandia
– 27:57 – The fauna and flora of Zelandia: Heading for New Zealand
– 42:30 – Zelandia : A Jurassic fossil forest
– 44:00 – The fauna and flora of Zelandia: Heading for New Caledonia
– 59:30 – Zélandia, contains engulfs…
– 01:04:10 – What if Zelandia had never sunk beneath the waves?

source