Geologists have just promoted New Zealand to a continent. Admittedly a small one; even if it were all above water, it’d be smaller than Australia. And they have to share their continent with New Caledonia and miscellaneous smaller islands.
So any Kiwis here? What are you going to do now that you’re a continent?
Well, if your nation had been endowed with a continental sized land mass, the first thing you really should do is build the capability to defend it.
Fake news about a fake continent.
Nah, I’m just kidding.
I don’t want to hear this. I’m still getting over the Pluto thing.
They got Hobbiton and the Shire and all that… they must be a [del]dwarf[/del]hobbit continent…
It’s not even “a” plate. It’s at the joint of two plates. See the standard plate map of the planet.
Note that “Filipinia”, “Arabia” and “Central America-Caribbia” have better claims to being continents.
Just as India’s a subcontinent and not a continent, the criteria for continenthood is a lot stronger than what these folks are blabbing about.
What’s next, Icelandia???
I always wondered, was there a Zealand before New Zealand?
Dennis
It was named after the Dutch province of Zeeland.
Why is this making the news now? I read about it on Wikipedia years ago.
^Same question. I’m pretty sure I read about it several years ago, too.
Damifino. Someone published a paper about it, I guess.
Next step: the IUGS having a vote on Zealandia being a [del]dwarf[/del]halfling continent? Will Australia also be demoted? Greenland promoted?
This is a bit of a resurrection, but I didn’t think this warranted a new thread.
I just read this article: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/zealandia-continent-expedition-new-zealand-cores-tectonics?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=mentalfloss
I had read about this before, but I didn’t get the justification then, and I don’t get it now.
OK, so it was once a continent, but now it’s not.
I found this much older thread ( http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=660315&highlight=Zealandia ) where people used tectonic plates to justify splitting continents up, such as considering India a subcontinent of Asia/Eurasia. But if we go down that route (including landmasses that are submerged), then the definition of continent is simply tectonic plate.
Can someone explain this to me, please?
Yay! I’m desperate for something to celebrate. The world/national news has been so awful, and my good friend’s beloved dog died last night, and I got a not-great report on my mom’s health.
Let’s celebrate Zealandia! But how? Eat kiwi fruit? Drink beer? Hug a koala? Maybe do all three of those while running around the house naked?
I’m pretty sure the celebration will have to involve rugby.
And driving on the left. Also, narrow-gauge railways and haka.
And the expected addendum to the national anthem, to be sung in the traditional fashion:
nah nah nah nah nah na-a-nah
nah nah nah nah na-a-a-a-ah
nah nah nah nah na-a-ah
God defend Ze-aland-i-a
That’s an easy question. The hard question is what is New South Wales named for? So far as I know, there wasn’t any jurisdiction named South Wales. Why not just New Wales? Or just South Wales?
It seems like nobody knows for sure. Perhaps the “South” refers to its location, rather than what it is named after.
In other words it is “New Wales” located in the southern bit of the planet, so New (South) Wales. Pure guess.
Iceland already is a continent
Its called north america
What is this? A continent for ants? How are supposed to teach kids geography if they can’t even fit on the continent?
