Around 155 million years ago, a continental drift caused a massive chunk of land to break off from Australia. Researchers from Utrecht University, in an October 2023 study, discovered evidence of this lost continent beneath the jungles of Southeast Asia, naming it "Argoland." According to the study published in Gondwana Research, Argoland once stretched as wide as the United States during the Jurassic Era.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Lara Jameson
Before this discovery, geologists were already aware that around 150 million years ago, a long piece of continent broke off from northwestern Australia and drifted away, per Phys. The evidence was the “void” or the “basin” called the Argo Abyssal Plain, which was discovered on the seafloor off the coast of northwestern Australia. But they didn’t know how and where it disappeared. With the discovery of Argoland, they found the missing piece of the geological puzzle. "Finding Argoland proved challenging," researchers wrote in the study. "We were literally dealing with islands of information, which is why our research took so long. We spent seven years putting the puzzle together," Eldert Advokaat, a study author, said in a university news release.
Advokaat and Hinsbergen were also interested in finding out if the geology of Southeast Asia could reveal what happened to Argoland. “The situation in Southeast Asia is very different from places like Africa and South America, where a continent broke neatly into two pieces. Argoland splintered into many different shards. That obstructed our view of the continent’s journey,” said Advokaat.
However, even after they located the missing continent in Southeast Asia, the researchers were anticipating finding the entire continent. But they found only fragments and shards of the disappeared continent. Upon studying the fragments, they proposed that the Argoland continent stretched for more than 3,000 miles from western Australia to the north of Papua New Guinea.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Ian Panelo
The geologists discovered the rocky fragments in the form of tectonic “mega-units,” scattered on the seafloor amid a setting of small islands. “Parts of the continent, which once extended over 3,000 miles, were ‘hidden beneath the green jungles of large parts of Indonesia and Myanmar,’” the team of Dutch researchers revealed. They investigated the fragments and reconstructed the entire geological history of Argoland, documenting it in a video. “The splintering of Argoland started around 300 million years ago,” explained geologist Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen in the press release.
Press release!
— Douwe van Hinsbergen (@vanHinsbergen) October 23, 2023
For decades we have known that a continent broke off western Australia, #Argoland. We now show how Argoland was an '#Argopelago' of microcontinental fragments, like Zealandia or Greater Adria, whose remains underlie Myanmar and Indonesia!https://t.co/rgi7vAgtj2 pic.twitter.com/JDbtFGgZC5
Researchers emphasized the importance of these fragments for understanding Argoland’s history. “If continents can dive into the mantle and disappear entirely, without leaving a geological trace at the earth’s surface, then we wouldn’t have much of an idea of what the earth could have looked in the geological past. It would be almost impossible to create reliable reconstructions of former supercontinents and the earth’s geography in foregone eras”, said Hinsbergen.
Hinsbergen added that these reconstructions are crucial for understanding a continent’s evolution. “Those reconstructions are vital for our understanding of processes like the evolution of biodiversity and climate, or for finding raw materials. And at a more fundamental level: for understanding how mountains are formed or for working out the driving forces behind plate tectonics; two phenomena that are closely related.”
According to Phys, the reconstruction of Argoland’s history revealed that it fractured into an archipelago during the Late Triassic period, parts of which later sank into the ocean. Before disintegrating, the Argoland continent was part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, per Popular Mechanics.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 5, 2024. It has since been updated.
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President Donald J. Trump and photo of a forest.
Public united and adamantly opposes Trump’s plan to roll back the Roadless Rule
There doesn't seem to be much agreement happening in the U.S. right now. Differing moral belief systems, economic disparity, and political divide have made a country with so many positives sometimes feel a little lost. Everyone desperately seeks a niche, a connection, or a strong sense of community to which they can feel a "part of," rather than just "apart."
But there seems to be one thing that the country strongly unites over, and that's the "Roadless Rule." With the Trump Administration attempting to roll back conservation policies that protect U.S. National Forests, Americans are saying in harmony an emphatic "No." A nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization, the Center for Western Priorities, reviewed a comment analysis on the subject. After receiving 223,862 submissions, a staggering 99 percent are opposed to the president's plan of repeal.
What is the 'Roadless Rule' policy implemented in 2001?
The Roadless Rule has a direct impact on nearly 60 million acres of national forests and grasslands. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the rule prohibits road construction and timber harvests. Enacted in 2001, it is a conservation rule that protects some of the least developed portions of our forests. It's considered to be one of the most important conservation wins in U.S. history.
America's national forests and grasslands are diverse ecosystems, timeless landscapes, and living treasures. They sustain the country with clean water and the wood products necessary to build our communities. The National Parks protected under their umbrella offer incredible recreational retreats and outdoor adventure.
Why does the administration want to roll it back?
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins told the Department of Agriculture in a 2025 press release, “We are one step closer to common sense management of our national forest lands. Today marks a critical step forward in President Trump’s commitment to restoring local decision-making to federal land managers to empower them to do what’s necessary to protect America’s forests and communities from devastating destruction from fires." Rollins continued, “This administration is dedicated to removing burdensome, outdated, one-size-fits-all regulations that not only put people and livelihoods at risk but also stifle economic growth in rural America. It is vital that we properly manage our federal lands to create healthy, resilient, and productive forests for generations to come. We look forward to hearing directly from the people and communities we serve as we work together to implement productive and commonsense policy for forest land management.”
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz explained the Roadless Rule frustrated land management and acts as a challenging barrier to action. It prohibits road construction needed to navigate wildfire suppression and properly maintain the forest. Schultz said, “The forests we know today are not the same as the forests of 2001. They are dangerously overstocked and increasingly threatened by drought, mortality, insect-borne disease, and wildfire. It’s time to return land management decisions where they belong – with local Forest Service experts who best understand their forests and communities."
Why are people adamantly opposed to the proposed rollback?
A 2025 article in Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, expressed its concern over the protection of national forests covering 36 states and Puerto Rico. A rescinded rule allows increased logging, extractive development, and oil and gas drilling in previously undisturbed backcountry. Here is what some community leaders had to say about it:
President Gloria Burns, Ketchikan Indian Community, said, "You cannot separate us from the land. We depend on Congress to update the outdated and predatory, antiquated laws that allow other countries and outside sources to extract our resource wealth. This is an attack on Tribes and our people who depend on the land to eat. The federal government must act and provide us the safeguards we need or leave our home roadless. We are not willing to risk the destruction of our homelands when no effort has been made to ensure our future is the one our ancestors envisioned for us. Without our lungs (the Tongass) we cannot breathe life into our future generations.”
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, stated, "Roadbuilding damaged salmon streams in the past — with 240 miles of salmon habitat still blocked by failed road culverts. The Roadless Rule protects our fishing economy and more than 10,000 jobs provided by commercial fishing in Southeast Alaska.”
The Sierra Club's Forest Campaign Manager Alex Craven seemed quite upset, saying, "The Forest Service followed sound science, economic common sense, and overwhelming public support when they adopted such an important and visionary policy more than 20 years ago. Donald Trump is making it crystal clear he is willing to pollute our clean air and drinking water, destroy prized habitat for species, and even increase the risk of devastating wildfires, if it means padding the bottom lines of timber and mining companies.”
The 2025 recession proposal would apply to nearly 45 million acres of the national forests. With so many people writing in opposition to the consensus, the public has determined they don't want it to happen.
Tongass National Forest is at the center of the Trump administration's intention to roll back the 2001 Roadless Rule. You can watch an Alaska Nature Documentary about the wild salmon of Tongass National Forrest here:
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The simple truth is we elect our public officials to make decisions. The hope is they do this for all of our well-being, although often it seems they do not. Even though we don't have much power to control what government officials do, voicing our opinions strongly enough often forces them to alter their present course of action. With a unanimous public voice saying, "No!" maybe this time they will course correct as the public wishes.