Discover the traces of an ancient continent in the Mediterranean

Text created by automatic translator Elia and has not been subsequently revised by translators. Elia Elhuyar

Agirre Ruiz de Arkaute, Aitziber

Elhuyar Zientzia

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Illustration of what Europe, Africa and the Great Adria would look like about 140 million years ago. Dark green, earth out of water; light green, under water. Ed. Douwe van Hinsberg/Utrecht University

After 10 years of research, a group of geologists have discovered the traces of an unknown continent that was in the Mediterranean some 140 million years ago. The continent is known as Great Adria and is believed to have a mass the size of Greenland.

240 million years ago, the Great Adria was born when part of the supercontinent Gondwana began to separate from the continent and began to move north, situating itself to the south of what we know today as Europe. Later, 120 million years ago, Great Adria clashed violently with Europe. They believe it was totally destroyed, buried under Europe. But a small part remained over Europe, according to geologists, as it has appeared dispersed in 30 current countries. For example in the Alps. Researchers from the Universities of Utrecht, Oslo and the Institute of Geophysics (EHT) have pointed out that it has been difficult to collect this data and clarify where the continent was.