A proposed world map showing the eighth continent Zealandia. Though most of this continent is submerged beneath the ocean, scientists say it has all the geologic hallmarks of a separate continent. (Nick Mortimer/GNS Science)
A journey to plumb the remote ocean depths has revealed that Earth does indeed have an eighth continent.
A nine-week voyage took scientists from around the world to drill and explore the seafloor off New Zealand and Australia. They found evidence of land-based fossils, revealing that the ancient landmass wasn't always buried beneath the waves.
"Zealandia, a sunken continent long lost beneath the oceans, is giving up its 60 million-year-old secrets through scientific ocean drilling," Jamie Allan, program director in the U.S. National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, said in a statement. [Photos: The World's Weirdest Geological Formations]
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Sunken 8th continent reveals its buried secrets
