Researchers have discovered a new continent hidden underground. The hidden continent is called Greater Adria, as big as Greenland, and is thought to have broken away from North Africa to be buried beneath southern Europe some 140 million years ago.

"Without realizing it, thousands of tourists spend their holidays every year on the lost continent of Greater Adrias," said Douwe van Hinsbergen, a professor at the University of Utrecht. The study was published this month in the journal Gondwana Research. There is only one belt left from the continent heading to Turin and crossing the Adriatic Sea to end up in Italy's "boot" in the south.

This area has been dubbed Adria by geologists, which has also been dubbed the Great Adria for the previously undiscovered continent. Most of it is underwater, covered by the sea, coral barriers and sediments. These sediments then formed rocks, which broke away from the Great Adria when the continent sank under Southern Europe. These rocks then formed the mountain ranges of the territory, the Alps, the Apennines, the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.

It is not the first time a lost continent has been discovered. In January 2017, researchers announced the discovery of a supercontinent called Gondwana, which was disconnected 200 million years ago, to be covered by lava that now lies beneath the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. While in September 2017, the lost continent of Zealand was discovered after exploration in the South Pacific.

Source: A2 CNN