<P> Coordinates: 40 ° S 170 ° E ﻿ / ﻿ 40 ° S 170 ° E ﻿ / - 40; 170 </P> <P> Zealandia (/ ziːˈlændiə /), also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis, is a nearly submerged mass of continental crust that sank after breaking away from Australia 60--85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago . It has variously been described as a continental fragment, a microcontinent and a continent . The name and concept for Zealandia were proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995 . </P> <P> The land mass may have been completely submerged about 23 million years ago, and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean . With a total area of approximately 4,920,000 km (1,900,000 sq mi), it is the world's largest current microcontinent, more than twice the size of the next - largest microcontinent and more than half the size of the Australian continent . As such, and due to other geological considerations, such as crustal thickness and density, it is arguably a continent in its own right . This was the argument which made news in 2017, when geologists from New Zealand, New Caledonia and Australia concluded that Zealandia fulfills all the necessary requirements to be considered a continent, rather than a microcontinent or continental fragment . </P>

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