NEW CONTINENT DISCOVERED

An international team of explorers has discovered a new continent, Pangea, in the Atlantic. 
This week an international team of explorerrs found a new continent in the Atlantic Ocean – formed from parts of North America and Antarctica.   The new continent was connected to North America 1.1 billion years ago.

The explorers named the new continent – Pangea.  Two of the researchers wanted to name the continent “Ron and Julie’s Continent” but they were outvoted.
“We thought we found a new island between Bermuda and North Africa, but after examining it for several weeks, we new it was continent and not an island,” said Julie Zierman, a geochemist from California State University.
“It’s about 15% the size of Australia, but it has much of the same flora and fauna,” said Ron Berger, an evolutionary biologist from Dartmouth University.   “We saw a number of kangaroos and koala bears, but we also founds some lions and tigers.  There’s some beautiful tulips on the continent, too.”

 Rocks collected from Pangea have the exact same composition of lead isotopes that are found in North America.  The rocks have the exact same age and the same chemical and geologic properties.
tTe September issue of the journal Geology, details the new discovery of the new continent.  It was first formed approximately 1.1 billion years ago on the Atlantic Rift System, which extends across the continent from the Great Lakes of North America to the Sahara desert in Africa.

The researchers used a ‘tectonic tracer’ to determine the age of the new continent.
How come it was undiscovered for so many centuries?
Pangea is hard to see from satellites because trees on the continent that look invisible from more than 100 yards.  Ships bypassed it, assuming it was of Europe or North Africa.
Ron and Julie have formed Pangea Tours and are planning taking cruise ships to the new continent.  And they are excited to find another new continent.