Scientists have discovered evidence that the ancient continent did not completely disappear, but instead partially connected with the existing continents, although most of it still went under water.
About 155 million years ago, the continent of Argoland separated from the supercontinent Gondwana and subsequently disappeared. This event has puzzled geologists for many years. The main evidence for the existence of Argoland is found in the Argo Abyssal Plain, a deep ocean basin near Western Australia. Geological evidence on the seabed suggests that Argoland was moving towards Southeast Asia, but the remains of a large land mass in this region were not discovered until recently, writes The Byte.
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Recent research has shed light on this mystery. The study showed that Argoland was not whole, but split into parts that are now under Myanmar and Indonesia. This discovery solves an important scientific problem, since the absence of Argoland in Southeast Asia would contradict modern geological understanding.
The search for Argoland lasted more than seven years. The difficulty was that Argoland was fragmented into small areas, making it difficult to track. Ultimately, the researchers came to the conclusion that 300 million years ago, Argoland was fragmented into an archipelago, and it was this cluster of islands that ended up in Southeast Asia.
The fragments of this “Argopelago” underwent different fates: the lower parts were submerged under the oceanic crust, and the upper parts merged with the crust of Myanmar and Indonesia.
This discovery has important implications for geology. If Argoland completely disappeared without a trace, it would raise concerns about the historical record of the earth’s landmass. Understanding the geological history of the Earth is important for understanding the evolution of biodiversity, climate change, resource distribution, formation of mountain ranges, and plate tectonics. This discovery provides vital information for these areas of research.
Previously Focus wrote about a new species of lion-like dinosaur discovered in Thailand. Researchers have discovered a new species of dinosaur that once lived in the region during the late Jurassic period, approximately 145-163 million years ago.
Also Focus wrote about the discovery of an extraordinary dinosaur that is the ancestor of modern birds. Researchers believe the fossils, found in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset, are the first-ever examples of a therizinosaur and troodontid in Britain.
