Meanwhile I've forgotten if Ireland is still pursuing its claims to the Bay of Biscay.
From Study Finds, June 29:
Secret sunken continent may be hiding under Iceland, scientists name it ‘Icelandia’
DURHAM, United Kingdom — A secret, sunken continent may be hiding under Iceland and the surrounding ocean, according to an international team of geologists who are calling it “Icelandia.”
Researchers say this sub-aquatic land could stretch from Greenland all the way to Europe. Their findings show it may cover an area of around 230,000 square miles, but when the team includes adjoining areas west of Britain in a “Greater Icelandia,” the entire area could be in the region of nearly 400,000 square miles in size. That’s an area bigger than Australia.
If scientists can prove this landmass exists under the sea, it means that the giant supercontinent of Pangaea, which included all of Earth’s landmass before breaking up over 50 million years ago, has in fact not fully broken up.
This new theory challenges long-held scientific ideas around the extent of oceanic and continental crust in the North Atlantic region, and how volcanic islands, like Iceland, formed. The presence of continental, rather than oceanic, crust could also spark discussions about a new source of minerals and hydrocarbons, both of which sit in continental crust.
Could Icelandia spark legal and political fights?Under certain conditions, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea grants coastal states exclusive rights to the non-living resources of their adjacent seabed if scientists can prove that the seabed is a submerged extension of the continental landmass.
“Until now Iceland has puzzled geologists as existing theories that it is built of, and surrounded by, oceanic crust are not supported by multiple geological data,” says Professor Gillian Foulger, Emeritus Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University, in a statement to SWNS....
....MUCH MORE
Here's the same story at PhysOrg but we went with Study Finds because they had the maps.
All of which may make Rockall Island even more important than it already is:
Ireland v. Scotland: "The Fight Over a Shitty Rock"
and:
More On Rockall, A Shitty Rock
Irish Folk Singer Wants to Reverse Britain’s Last Imperial Conquest—a Rock
Rockall is about 230 miles from the nearest habitable land and Brian Warfield is a 73-year-old folk musician without a boat
