Scientists have unearthed compelling evidence of a continent, once part of the landmass that eventually formed Australia, that drifted away approximately 155 million years ago.

Geologists had long theorized the existence of this continent, known as Argoland, primarily due to a noticeable void in Western Australia; however, substantial evidence had been lacking until now.

A team from Utrecht University in the Netherlands embarked on a comprehensive endeavor to reconstruct the history of Argoland. Their research unveiled a fascinating narrative: the 3,100-mile expanse of land had journeyed to South Asia and currently resides more than 18,000 feet beneath the Indian Ocean's surface. Eldert Advokaat, from Utrecht University's Department of Earth Sciences, remarked on the distinctive nature of Argoland's fragmentation, unlike the clean separation of continents observed in other regions such as Africa and South America. Argoland splintered into numerous distinct fragments, adding complexity to the understanding of its journey.

By employing computer reconstructions based on existing geological data, researchers delineated how Argoland fractured into multiple pieces that eventually settled in what we now recognize as Indonesia and Myanmar. Rather than constituting a singular landmass, Argoland emerged as an amalgamation of smaller components that gradually coalesced over millions of years.

This revelation has been instrumental in bridging a significant gap in geological knowledge, enriching our comprehension of the processes shaping the formation of mountains, islands, and underwater geological features over time.

The team also endeavored to piece together scattered remnants of Argoland, reviewing the structural composition of known tectonic mega-units in Southeast Asia and Northwest Australia. This effort aimed to shed light on how these remnants drifted so far from their original location.

During the late Jurassic period, approximately 164 million to 145 million years ago, the supercontinent Pangaea fragmented into two major landmasses, Laurasia and Gondwana. This division was not straightforward, as Argoland already comprised multiple continental fragments and sections of seafloor at that time.

The islands where Argoland's fragments appear to have settled do not seem to rest upon anything resembling the theoretical continent. The only pieces of ancient continental crust in the vicinity were notably older, dating back around 205 million years. One possibility considered was that the continent may have descended beneath a subduction zone, where one tectonic plate converges with another and plunges beneath it. In these regions, portions of the rocky seafloor merge with the mantle beneath Earth's crust, where they eventually transform into future crust.

Given the disparity in ages between the Argo Abyssal Plain and these potential fragments, researchers raised the possibility that the fragments may have migrated to their current locations long before Argoland descended beneath a subduction zone.

As per the team's reconstruction, these fragments embarked on a journey across the Indian Ocean over millions of years. Despite their "intense deformation," they have endured and settled in areas now covered by jungle in Myanmar on mainland Asia, as well as several islands within the Indonesian archipelago.

The researchers acknowledge certain limitations in their reconstruction, including geological age estimates of tectonic plate sections that rely on older data, suggesting that modern measurements could yield more precise results. The dense vegetation cover and complex maritime conditions in the region also complicated their correlations, leaving room for potential inaccuracies in the findings.