According to Live Science, the new hypothesis of a group of international geophysicists and geologists goes against long-standing ideas about the formation of Iceland and the North Atlantic, but the researchers say the theory explains both the geological characteristics of the ocean floor and why the Earth's crust under Iceland is much thicker than normal.
If geological studies prove this hypothesis, the new idea of a sunken continent could be meaningful for the ownership of any natural resources found on the seabed, which under international law belongs to a country with a prolonged continental shelf.
"The area with continental materials below stretches from Greenland to Scandinavia" - Gillian Foulger, lead author of "Icelandio", a chapter in the new book "In the footsteps of Warren B. Hamilton: New Ideas in Earth Science" (roughly translated: Following the footsteps of Warren B.Hamilton: New ideas in Earth science) by the American Geological Society - described the new theory.
"Some of them in the west and east are now submerged underwater, but it is still higher than normal... If the sea level had dropped by 600 meters, we would have seen more soil on the ocean surface," said Foulger, honorary professor of geophysics at the University of Durham, UK.
The North Atlantic region used to be a completely dry land that created the supercontinent of Pangea (The Whole Lieutenant - a supercontinent that existed during the Great East before separating into continents) from about 335 million to 175 million years ago. Geologists have long thought that the North Atlantic basin formed when Pangea began to split into continents 200 million years ago and Iceland formed about 60 million years ago in a cape near the center of the ocean.
But Foulger and his co-authors make another hypothesis: The oceans begin to form in the south and north - not the west and east - of Iceland as the Pangea dissolves. Instead, geologists write that the western and eastern regions are still connected to what they are today, Greenland and Sc Sc Scandinavia.
According to the new theory, Pangea was not clearly separated, and the lost Dutch continent was still a strip of dry land at least 300km wide perched on waves until about 10 million years ago. Finally, the eastern and western ends of Icelandic also sank, leaving only Iceland.
Geologists say the theory will explain why the crusted rock under modern Iceland is about 40km thick rather than about 8km thick.
Foulger and her colleagues estimate that Icelandic once stretched more than 600,000 square kilometres of dry land between Greenland and Sc Scandinavia. Today, Iceland covers an area of about 103,000 square kilometers.
They suggest that there is also an adjacent area of similar size, which would create the "Great Icelandia", in the west of the area today, England and Ireland. But that area was also submerged in waves.
Geologist Philip Steinberg, director of the University of Durham Border Research Center, said the new hypothesis that Icelandia could have an impact on the ownership of underwater natural resources.
According to international law, the legal regime of the continental shelf is expressed through the rights of coastal states. That is the exercise of sovereignty through the exploration and exploitation of natural resources on the continental shelf. In addition, coastal countries also have the right to decide on the conduct of marine science research on their continental shelf; the right to artificial islands with equipment and works on the continental shelf; the right to protect and preserve the marine environment.
