Three researchers suggest in a new article that Iceland is located on a sunken continent, writes forskning.no.
They think it could extend from Greenland to Scotland. It will also include the area around Jan Mayen, which was already known as a microcontinent, as well as perhaps elevations outside the west side of the UK.
One of the researchers behind the new article, Laurent Gernigon at the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU), tells Dagbladet that the new theory can be a little difficult to explain.
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“Icelandia”
– In this area there is a lot of magma, and when the continental plates are stretched, the magma is pressed both down and up, and in that way a new continent can arise, Gerngion tells Dagbladet.
He goes on to say that the researchers got the idea to call the region “Iceland” after inspiration from another possible sunken continent that is under New Zealand.
– Can you call it a kind of Atlantis?
– I see that some British media have referred to it as that, but we think it is much better to call this “Iceland”, Gernigon answers.
The new hypothesis, which is presented in the publication in the publication “In the Footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton: New Ideas in Earth Science”. It is also published by the Geological Society of America.