Davis Strait proto-microcontinent

A hidden landmass has been found beneath the icy waters of the Davis Strait, the body of water in the northern Atlantic Ocean that separates Canada’s Baffin Island from Greenland.

• The discovery was made by a team of scientists from the UK and Sweden during a study of the ocean floor in the region.

• The landmass is now named the Davis Strait proto-microcontinent. It is made up of unusually thick continental crust and measures between 12 and 15 miles (around 19 to 24 kilometres).

• It lies submerged beneath Greenland’s western offshore waters and has been identified as a primitive microcontinent which is an ancient fragment of crust that never fully separated when Greenland and North America drifted apart.