South Pacific landmass may have been closer to land level than once thought

I enjoy (as humor) the articles where this is discussed as a plot by New Zealand to be declared a continent. I imagine if there were people from Pluto living among us they would be telling us how planet like Pluto is :-)<p>But humor aside, where do you draw the line? Nearly all of the Mojave desert in the US was clearly a sea floor based on the fossils found in its sandstone rocks. But we&#x27;re not going to call it an ocean. It <i>was</i> an ocean, and then things moved around and now it <i>is</i> a desert. Zealandia <i>was</i> a continent but now its the seafloor around an island.<p>Lets say we call it a continent, does it suddenly make it all the territory of the government of New Zealand? Does that mean they control fishing and mineral rights for hundreds of kilometers beyond the shores of their island? Where does that lead?

How cool - it&#x27;s also interesting that there are a handful of massive undersea plateaus marked on one of the articles&#x27; maps.<p>I wonder if it&#x27;d be possible to build a sealab on one of them; it looks like there are often small atolls nearby, and it could be a good environment for testing concepts related to building and maintaining livable underwater environments.

Isn&#x27;t it funny that an American journal publishes an article with Australian scientists about a continent they term Zealandia after New Zealand in turn named after a place in Holland where much of the landmass and water is currently controlled by France?<p>I have pity on the Chinese national geographic toponym bureau for having the tedious task of translating this for national linguistic unity.<p>Truly, we dwell in a post-national mire of bureaucrats! We need more solid continents!

First we lose a planet, now we gain a continent. Is nothing I learned in Elementary school sacred?

What are the chances that this extends to Australia and is actually a part of Australia?

Pretty crazy to me to think of continents as floating