Recently published
Architecture with natural stone»
- Chelsea Flower Show: Commemorating D-Day and a myriad of interesting landscaping ideas with natural stone
- The new James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin is a treasure for the Museum Island and shines throughout the City
Design with natural stone»
- Interior designer Elisabetta de Strobel presents the lamp „Deep Red“ made of Verona Red marble
- For its second collection Marsotto LAB again cooperated with Lausanne’s ECAL School of Fine Art
Markets: Selling Stone»
- Project „Life in Quarries“: give endangered species living space in active quarries
- „One Million Grams of Granite“: Austrian stonemasons busy themselves with artistic inspiration for one ton of local stone
Reports from Stone Trade Fairs»
- New trade fair: Obra Blanca Expo (OE Expo) for stones and tiles in Mexico City from October 15 to 17, 2019
- „Young Creative Ideas Platform” – second appearance at the Marble Trade Fair Izmir
Stone Stories»
- Man lands on the moon 50 years ago: a place of longing but on the other hand perhaps a dangerous extraterrestrial site
- Earthquakes along the Dead Sea Rift may cause tsunamis threatening the coasts of the Gulf of Eilat-Aqaba
Art: Sculpting with Marble etc»
- Stone mosaics for the soul by US artist Nick Gilbert
- Spanish A.R. Los Huertos company: contest for sculptures made of recycled construction materials
Briefly noted»
Planet Earth has one more continent: Zealandia
The plate around New Zealand and New Caledonia once broke away from Gondwana / Its mountains are nowadays covered by water except NZ and NC
New Zealand and New Caledonia are isolated islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Recently, scientists came up with the idea that they actually are a continent of their own located between the Australian and the Antarctic plates. After braking away from Gondwana, it sank down and its mountains are nowadays covered by water. Scientist gave it even a name: Zealandia. The report is published in GSA Today, the magazine of the Geological Society of America.
Most of us view the continents and oceans as discrete entities of land and water across Earth’s surface. However, even a cursory look at our world establishes the problem: Are North America and South America truly separate continents with their connection through the Isthmus of Panama? Where and why does one distinguish Europe, Africa, and Asia considering the Bosphorus and Sinai Peninsula?
One might suggest a geological reason: Continents are large, identifiable areas underlain by continental crust. The article by Nick Mortimer, Hamish J. Campbell, Andy J. Tulloch, Peter R. King, Vaughan M. Stagpoole, Ray A. Wood, Mark S. Rattenbury, Rupert Sutherland, Chris J. Adams, Julien Collot, and Maria Seton follows this idea, but then throws a fascinating twist on the subject: Zealandia.
One only needs to look at a bathymetric map, where ocean water is removed, to appreciate the issue. Several islands, notably New Zealand and New Caledonia, are connected by submerged continental crust across a large area of Earth’s surface.
This mostly underwater continent is geologically separate and distinct from Australia and Antarctica, and as highlighted by Mortimer and colleagues, should be treated as such. Basically, from a well-reasoned geoscience perspective, Earth has well-established continents, but also an extra one, mostly underwater. (evma)
(17.02.2017, USA: 02.17.2017)
