Scientists determined that the submerged land mass, named Zealandia, was its own continent – not a part of the Australian continent – back in 2017. Efforts to map the continent have found that it was 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers), which is about half the size of Australia. However, only 6% of the continent is above sea level today. Just the two islands of New Zealand. Which makes the continent-mapping effort actually an ocean-mapping effort.
Check out the interactive map scientists have created with the latest information from their mapping work! It shows mountains and ridges beneath the ocean, as well as coastlines, territorial limits, and the names of major undersea features. The map of Zealandia is part of a global initiative to map the planet’s entire ocean floor by 2030.
