Now, a whole new continent<\/a> has been found lurking beneath the icy waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean<\/a>.<\/p>\n The discovery was made around the Davis Strait, a large stretch of water located between Canada<\/a>\u2019s Baffin Island and Greenland<\/a>.<\/p>\n The strait was formed millions of years ago when the tectonic plates between the two islands shifted, reconfiguring the Earth\u2019s crust.<\/a><\/p>\n This resulted in the formation of a thick continental crust in the ocean, which has now been declared a newly discovered primitive microcontinent.<\/p>\n In a study that was published in the journal Gondwana Research<\/a>, a team of scientists based in the UK and Sweden, reconstructed the plate tectonic movements that would have occurred in the area around the Davis Straight some 33 to 61 million years ago.<\/p>\n They found that this resulted in the formation of an unusually thick slab of continental crust, which now measures between 12 and 15 miles long and sits offshore in Greenland\u2019s western waters, as Popular Mechanics<\/a> notes.<\/p>\n It has now been christened the Davis Strait proto-microcontinent.<\/p>\n According to the experts, studying this new landmass and its formation will help improve broader understanding of similar geographic structures. <\/p>\n \u201cOur identified mechanism of microcontinent formation may be widely applicable to other microcontinents around the globe,\u201d the team wrote in their paper.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd further study is merited to understand the role of plate motion changes and transpression in microcontinent calving.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was first published on July 17, 2024<\/p>\n That’s not all! Here’s the best of our science coverage:<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/the-yellow-blob-in-the-centre-here-indicates-the-location-of-the-u00a0davis-strait-proto-microcontin.jpeg\")