A major geological surprise has been discovered deep under the icy waters between Greenland and Canada.
A Surprising Find Beneath the Davis Strait
Researchers from Sweden and the UK have discovered a new microcontinent beneath the Davis Strait, which is the slender waterway that separates Greenland and Baffin Island. This new landform, now named the Davis Strait proto-microcontinent, lies hidden beneath the western offshore area of Greenland.
Unusually thick continental crust makes up the microcontinent. The width of it is around 12 to 15 miles, or 19 to 24 kilometers. Though hidden from view under the sea, this massive landform is made of ancient rock that once belonged to larger landmasses.
It never fully broke away during past tectonic events, which makes it a special piece of the Earth’s crust.
Unlike big continents like Africa or Asia, a microcontinent is a smaller chunk of the Earth’s crust. It may break off from a larger landmass during tectonic changes but stays partly connected.
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That’s exactly what seems to have happened with this newly found piece near Greenland. It stayed partly stuck during the time when Greenland was moving away from North America.
Understanding How It Was Formed
To understand the discovery, scientists used a mix of satellite gravity readings and marine seismic data. These methods allowed researchers to “see” what lies beneath the seafloor. With this information, they built computer models that recreated how this part of the Earth changed over millions of years.
The models showed that about 120 million years ago, Greenland and North America began to drift apart. This slow movement began speeding up about 61 million years ago when the seafloor in the Davis Strait began spreading. This is when new ocean floor formed between the two separating landmasses.
As Greenland moved, it followed a fault line — known as the Pre-Ungava Transform Margin. The Earth’s crust has fissures called fault lines where movement occurs. During this period, Greenland was mostly moving northeast.
What changed, however, was some 56 million years ago. Greenland began to move further northward rather than northeastward. The Davis Strait proto-microcontinent started to form as a result of this alteration.
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The microcontinent continued taking shape as Earth’s tectonic plates shifted. Around 48 million years ago, the North American plate began to pull apart more strongly in the Davis Strait. However, this procedure was short-lived. A new fault system began to form, and the rifting stopped.
By the time Greenland collided with Ellesmere Island around 33 million years ago, the major movements had almost come to an end. This tectonic collision slowed down Greenland’s drift and helped the region become as stable as it is today. Today, the Davis Strait does not experience significant earthquakes, showing that the tectonic activity there has mostly stopped.
What the Microcontinent Tells Us About Earth’s Movements
This discovery alters our understanding of how continents move and goes beyond simply uncovering a buried landmass. Tectonic plate movement was long thought to be primarily caused by deep mantle forces, such as slab pull.
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Slab pull is the process by which a section of the oceanic plate drags the other plates along with it as it descends into the mantle.
But this new research shows that the Earth’s lithosphere — the outer layer made of solid rock — can also play a big role. Structures inside the lithosphere, such as thick patches of crust like this proto-microcontinent, can have a strong impact on how tectonic plates move and shift.
There are several proto-microcontinents similar to the one in the Davis Strait. Other similar microcontinents have been found in different parts of the world. These include Jan Mayen near Iceland, the East Tasman Rise southeast of Tasmania, and the Gulden Draak Knoll off the coast of western Australia. All of these features suggest that small hidden landmasses may be more common than once believed.
Such features offer detailed clues about the Earth’s long history of plate movement. They act like time capsules, preserving records of how continents have formed, moved, collided, and changed over hundreds of millions of years. The newly discovered microcontinent between Greenland and Canada adds an important new piece to the global puzzle of Earth’s tectonic past.