3-billion-year-old crystals hint at lost continent’s fate
Volcanoes, shifting plates caused Mauritia to crumble
Relics of a long-lost continent may lurk beneath the Indian Ocean.
Tiny zircon crystals coughed up by volcanic eruptions on the island of Mauritius are around 2.5 billion to 3 billion years old. That’s billions of years older than the island itself, researchers report January 31 in Nature Communications. The zircons, the researchers propose, are remnants of an ancient continent called Mauritia that formed part of the nexus of Madagascar and India before the two landmasses split apart around 84 million years ago (SN: 1/21/17, p. 18).