The "Lost Continent"

Crystals between 2.5 and 3 billion years found in Mauritius evidence of an ancient continent, researchers have claimed.

17:45 01 February 2017

A new study has claimed that Mauritius, now famous for its beaches and reefs, was covered by a continent three billion years ago.

 

Professor Lewis Ashwal and colleagues from Wits University found pieces of zirconian crystals on Mauritius. Using an imaging technique called mass spectrometry, they have determined that the crystals are between 2.5 billion and three billion years old.

 

Professor Ashwal said: 'Our results demonstrate the existence of ancient continental crust beneath Mauritius'

 

'Mauritius and other Mauritian continental fragments are dominantly underlain by Archaean continental crust, and that these originally formed part of the ancient nucleus of Madagascar and India.'

 

'This result is important because it allows us to better understand the processes by which continents break apart due to plate tectonics, and it also allows us to reconstruct the positions of these and other pieces of continent back in time.' 

 

'Mauritia acted as a buffer zone between the western Indian subcontinent and eastern Madagascar, and was fragmented by numerous tectonic and volcanic events that occurred in that region since the early Cretaceous,' the authors added.