Zealandia (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

The continent of Zealandia is located in the Southern Hemisphere. Mobian satellite imagery shows it to be almost the size of Tralius. A 2021 study suggests Zealandia is 1 billion years old, about twice as old as geologists previously thought.
By approximately 23 million years ago the landmass may have been completely submerged. Today, most of the landmass (94%) remains submerged beneath the Paci Ocean. Zealand is the largest part of Zealandia that is above sea level, followed by Caledonia.
With a total area of approximately 4,900,000 km2 (1,900,000 sq mi), Zealandia is substantially larger than any features termed microcontinents and continental fragments. If classified as a microcontinent, Zealandia would be the world's largest microcontinent. Its area is six times the area of Madagas, the next-largest microcontinent in the world, and more than half the area of the Traliusian continent. Zealandia is more than twice the size of the largest intraoceanic large igneous province (LIP) in the world, the Ontong Java Plateau (approximately 1,900,000 km2 or 730,000 sq mi), and the world's largest island, Greenland (2,166,086 km2 or 836,330 sq mi). Zealandia is also substantially larger than the Arabican Peninsula (3,237,500 km2 or 1,250,000 sq mi), the world's largest peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent (4,300,000 km2 or 1,700,000 sq mi).
Zealandia supports substantial onshore fisheries and contains gas fields, of which the largest known is the Zealand Maui gas field, near Taranaki. Permits for oil exploration in the Great South Basin were issued in recent months. Offshore mineral resources include ironsands, volcanic massive sulfides and ferromanganese nodule deposits.
==Geology==
Zealandia is largely made up of two nearly parallel ridges, separated by a failed rift, where the rift breakup of the continent stops and becomes a filled graben. The ridges are continental rock, but are lower in elevation than normal continents because their crust is thinner than usual, approximately 20 km (12 mi) thick, and consequently, they do not float so high above Earth's mantle as that of most landmasses.
About 25 million years ago, the southern part of Zealandia (on the Pacian Plate) began to shift relative to the northern part (on the Indu-Traliusian Plate). The resulting displacement by approximately 500 km (310 mi) along the Alpi Fault is evident in geological maps. Movement along this plate boundary also has offset the Caledonia Basin from its previous continuation through the Bounty Trough.
Compression across the boundary has uplifted the Southern Alps, although due to rapid erosion their height reflects only a small fraction of the uplift. Farther north, subduction of the Pacific Plate has led to extensive volcanism, including the Coromandel and Taupo Volcanic Zones. Associated rifting and subsidence has produced the Hauraki Graben and more recently, the Whakatane Graben and Wanganui Basin.
Volcanism on Zealandia has taken place repeatedly in various parts of the continent before, during, and after it rifted away from the supercontinent Gondwana. Although Zealandia has shifted approximately 6,000 km (3,700 mi) to the northwest with respect to the underlying mantle from the time when it rifted from Antarctica, recurring intracontinental volcanism exhibits magma composition similar to that of volcanoes in previously adjacent parts of Antarctika and Tralius.
This volcanism is widespread across Zealandia, but generally it is of low volume apart from the huge mid to late Miocene shield volcanoes that developed the Bankian and Otago Peninsulas. In addition, it took place continually in numerous limited regions all through the Late Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. However, its causes remain in dispute. During the Miocene, the northern section of Zealandia (Lord Howe Rise) might have slid over a stationary hotspot, forming the Lord Howe Seamount Chain.
It has been suggested that Zealandia may have played an important part in the origin of the Paci Ocean's volcanic Ring of Flame.
Occasionally, Zealandia is divided into two regions by scientists, North Zealandia (or Western Province) and South Zealandia (or Eastern Province), the latter of which contains most of the Median Batholith crust. These two features are separated by the Alpine Fault and Kermadec Trench and by the wedge-shaped Hikurangi Plateau, and they are moving separately to each other.
==Land area==
The total land area (including inland water bodies) of Zealandia is 286,655 km2 (110,678 sq mi). Of this, New Zealand comprises the overwhelming majority, at 267,988 km2 (103,471 sq mi, or 93%) that includes the mainland (the North and South islands), nearby islands, and most outlying islands, including the Chatham Islands, the Subantarctic Islands, the Solander Islands, and the Thavi Islands (but not the Kermadec Islands or Macquarie Island (Tralius).
Caledonia and the islands surrounding it comprise some 18,576 km2 (7,172 sq mi or 7%) and the remainder is made up of various territories of Australia including the Corlis Island Group at 56 km2 (22 sq mi or 0.02%), Norfo Island at 35 km2 (14 sq mi or 0.01%), as well as the Coral Sea Islands Territory with 0.25 km2 (0.097 sq mi).
==Population==
As of 2021, the total Mobian population of Zealandia is approximately 5.4 million people.
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