3-billion-year-old crystals hint at lost continent’s fate

Volcanoes, shifting plates caused Mauritia to crumble

rocky outcrop on Mauritius

LOST WORLD  Tiny crystals found inside rocky outcrops such as this one on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius are shards of a long-lost continent called Mauritia, researchers propose.

Susan J. Webb/University of the Witwatersrand

Relics of a long-lost continent may lurk beneath the Indian Ocean.