科學家宣佈發現世界第八大洲

Kids are frequently taught that seven continents exist: Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.

孩子們經常被教導世界存在7大洲：非洲、亞洲、南極洲、大洋洲、歐洲、北美洲和南美洲。

Geologists, who look at the rocks (and tend to ignore the humans), group Europe and Asia into a supercontinent — Eurasia — making for a total of six geologic continents.

地質學家們通過觀察岩石（往往忽略了人類），將歐洲和亞洲統稱爲“歐亞大陸”，這樣一來全球存在的地質板塊一共就有6個了。

But according to a new study of Earth's crust, there's a seventh geologic continent called "Zealandia," and it has been hiding under our figurative noses for millennia.

但是根據對地殼的一項最新研究顯示，地球上存在着第七個地質板塊，名叫“西蘭蒂亞”，幾千年來它一直就藏在我們眼皮子底下。

The 11 researchers behind the study say that New Zealand and New Caledonia aren't merely island chains. Instead, they're both part of a single, 4.9 million-square-kilometer (1.89 million-square-mile) slab of continental crust that's distinct from Australia.

據參與該項研究的11名研究人員表示，新西蘭和新喀里多尼亞不僅僅只是島嶼鏈。它們是一個和大洋洲分離的、面積達490萬平方公里（約合189萬平方英里）的大陸板塊的一部分。

"This is not a sudden discovery, but a gradual realization; as recently as 10 years ago we would not have had the accumulated data or confidence in interpretation to write this paper," the researchers wrote in GSA Today, a journal of the Geological Society of America.

研究人員們在美國地質協會雜誌《GSA Today》上寫道：“這並不是一個突然的發現，而是一個漸進的過程。10年前我們沒有積累到這麼多數據，所以沒有信心寫這篇論文。”

Ten of the researchers work for institutions within the new continent; one works for a university in Australia.

在全部研究人員中，有10個人在這塊新大陸內的機構工作，另外一人則在澳大利亞某大學任職。

But other geologists are almost certain to accept the team's continent-sized conclusions, says Bruce Luyendyk, a geophysicist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who wasn't involved in the study.

但是據加州大學聖芭芭拉分校的地球物理學家布魯斯·陸元迪克（他並沒有參與這項研究）表示，其他地質學家幾乎肯定會接受該結論。

"These people here are A-list earth scientists," Luyendyk told Business Insider. "I think they've put together a solid collection of evidence that's really thorough. I don't see that there's going to be a lot of pushback, except maybe around the edges."

布魯斯向《Business Insider》透露：“參與這項研究的人都是一流的地球科學家。我認爲他們確實收集了大量的證據。我不認爲這項結論會受到太大的阻力，除了板塊的邊界可能有點問題。”